Alexa Z Meditates - Your Life, But Better

In today's episode, I am going to discuss three things to make your meditation a slam dunk. By slam dunk I mean a practice that is simple, effective and best of all YOU WILL STICK TO IT! There are many methods, brands and apps, and apps for your apps, but today let's get back to the basics. Let's get back to the why and the how and get your practice on the tracks headed to the destination of your choice. You can study until you are old and gray, but the practice does not work unless you practice! Meditation is a training, and after years of teaching and watching students stop and start, get excited and sometimes frustrated, I think I have found the secret sauce to success.

Whether you are just starting out, you keep starting and stopping or have started but don't feel like the results are robust enough to keep you coming back, well hold on. I will layout a simple plan that will help you to that magical destination. One where you can find peace clarity, compassion, courage, and your inner badass.

Now get ready, hit subscribe, smile, get a beverage, and I will right back. You don't want to miss this.

Hey There, Alexa Z here with my favorite three things that can make your meditation practice a slam dunk. 

First, my suggestion is for you to listen to this podcast until the end; no note-taking necessary. Please hear me out, listen and, more importantly, feel what I am trying to get at. In the end, I will give you a link where you can print out a few fun things to use to make these three elements of my secret sauce all your own.

When I first began to teach meditation formally, I always remembered my teacher Sarah McLean saying all you need to meditate are three things: a desire, a focus, and a nonjudgmental attitude. This made sense to me and I have repeated it at least 10,000 times over the years. However, of late, I have found a way to expand on all three of these. Right from the get-go, to help make your practice very personal because you are unique and your needs are individual. One size does not fit all.

In my first one on one session with a client, we go through the following exercise, and it tends to shed light on why the person wanted to learn to meditate, to begin with. I also help map out how on earth this practice is going to fit into their life efficiently and effectively. And most importantly, add an extra dose of accountability.  

Let's Dive In

NUMBER ONE: Why Are You Meditating?

Desire: Before you take on something new most likely you have a desire, even if that desire was nudged on from someone like perhaps your doctor telling you have to lower your blood pressure. Or maybe the urge came from a place deep within like the desire to have less stress and more peace in your life. Or possibly to improve something like memory, your sleep, focus, or creativity. Or maybe to change a habit like quitting smoking or alcohol or improving your diet. This is where I get people to dive deeper.

The best way I can do this is through my own example:

• Panic attacks - I had them and I needed them to stop!

If I really had someone walk me through this, which later came through a lot of soul searching and a lot of counseling, I would have discovered

• Low self-esteem
• Poor body image
• Fears (financial, abandonment)

What are all of the reasons you want to meditate? If it is just one, I ask you to dig a little deeper. In my freebie at the end, you will be given a one-page worksheet to get you to develop the full story. I want you to tuck that completed page away and pull it out every time you think you don't want to practice or when you are wondering if anything is starting to shift. It is all connected!

NUMBER TWO: Start Simple and Stick to It!

Focus – As I said when I opened the show, you can learn many methods of meditation, mainly a type of focused concentration (think zooming in) or open awareness (wide-angle lens). The second type should come after the first type, a bit more advanced and there is no prize if you go to open awareness first. You don't go to hot, challenging yoga vinyasa flow level three if you have learned the basics first. Well you can but you will become frustrated and most likely will hurt yourself.

With that being said, I am going to make a recommendation. Start with body and breath awareness and do it every day for a bit. It is incredibly useful and how relaxing does it sound to know that you can sit down without having to make a decision on what to try today. It was like when I decided to wear jeans and white button-downs every day. It was as though life gave me a giant gift, mainly of time. And thankfully, I own 9 white button-downs. Back to Meditation. Body and breath awareness. I have people still doing this simple but profound practice year after year.

To help you start or get back on track, I will give you a 10-minute body and breath practice AND a calendar to track 7 days. This is HUGE, 7 days of accountability. You miss a day, you go back to day one. The calendar has a few bullet points to review each day before you begin to keep your mind settled and focused on the final ingredient in my secret sauce (or Sarah's sauce with my added touches based directly from client experiences)

NUMBER THREE: Rituals

Nonjudgmental Attitude or Attitude

I reminded my client of this yesterday in a text string, and she came back with "No Judgment – that's a novel idea with laughing emoticons) It's hard, I get it! But think of it this way, life is hard, habits are hard, so to shift the mindset, let's thing NON-ISSUE. I will list a few things and then you repeat (right now) This is a non-issue

• If today is harder than yesterday
• It doesn't feel like it's working
• I keep fidgeting
• I can't stop my mind
• I don't have time – bzzzzzz wrong answer – I got you on that one.

It would help if you didn't lay judgment on your life because you are short of time. I want to prove to you, through the results of your practice, that you DO have the time. The calendars' notes will remind you of the nonjudgmental things to practice during your training, and the last part of your freebie will help you with time. It's called your Morning Ritual. Yes, I want you to practice first thing in the morning, but it is later in the morning or midday I will not lay judgment.

Here is the secret sauce. It would help if you had a ritual and then a backup ritual. We all know how the morning can shake out, but first, we try, and if we do not succeed, we already have a backup plan. That plan can be as simple as what happened to me this morning. I sat down to meditate after feeding the dogs like I always do, and my husband came down the stairs and said, "is their anyway you can help me do yoga for 10 minutes" after I picked myself up off the floor from fainting I said YES. This was a miracle I was witnessing. No worries, I have a backup plan. I walk to my planner and insert a break before lunch, earlier if I can. Done, back up plan. No stress. Super easy.

I think you get the point, but now I want you to look at part three of the freebie. A morning ritual worksheet AND a backup plan. I have some tips for setting it up, and you must know that when you think it through and write it down – it works.

To reiterate:

ONE – Desire – dig deep – go check off all of them

TWO – Focus – Start with what I have you and note it on the calendar

THREE – Create a nonjudgmental attitude starting with a Morning Ritual that also is a non-issue because you also have a backup plan.

And next week, my teacher Sarah McLean herself will be on the show to really expand on these three things and on demystifying all those brands and methods out there.

HERE IS WHAT YOU DO: Click Here for Freebie

Intro

In today's episode, I am going to shed a little light on emotional intelligence.  You might think you don't need to listen to this episode because you know all about it, you might have even read Daniel Goleman's book, Emotional Intelligence.  Hold tight! I am here to talk about how meditation can improve your emotional intelligence, why we should always enhance emotional intelligence, and how it can make you a better person and a better leader. Increasing your emotional intelligence is just one more magical gift that meditation can offer. 

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Hey there, Alexa Z here!  Before we jump into the topic of mindfulness, meditation, and emotional intelligence, I would like you to take a moment and check-in with yourself.  Ask yourself, what are my emotions and feelings right now.  When I work with children, I ask, "What's the weather today?" For example, sometimes, I feel stormy and sunny at the same time, as though my weather is a bit oxymoronic.  Hold on to your thoughts on what your emotions are right now, and I will talk about them again a little bit later.  If you have read Daniel Goleman's book on emotional intelligence, you may have some knowledge about this topic. 

I personally like to keep it simple.  There are excellent reasons why we need emotional intelligence.  Usually, you hear about emotional intelligence with leadership.  Everyone should be a good leader, whether you are a leader in a company or your family, or merely making your way through life.  Imagine if you could not perceive that an employee or a family member, or your friend, is frustrated or upset.  Imagine if you could not tune in to what others are feeling, and you are unable to connect with them.  Research calls tuning in to another's emotions as emotional intelligence.  Research also indicates that emotional intelligence is what differentiates great leaders from average leaders. 

In Daniel Goleman's book, he includes a study that involved approximately 200 executives.  The study found that their emotional intelligence, also known as EQ or emotional quotient, was twice as relevant to performance compared to their IQ. and their technical abilities. 

Approximately 70% of the time, people with high emotional intelligence can outperform and attain superior leadership positions at a faster pace than those who have a high IQ and technical abilities. 

I have always been fascinated by emotional intelligence.  I am relatively smart, but I do not have a stellar IQ.  There are some aspects I can't change about myself. But, I can improve my emotional intelligence.  Not only can I develop my emotional intelligence, but I must continuously work on it.  Your IQ stays the same, the way you learned in the past is the same way you learn today; it does not change.  Your personality doesn't really change.  I always say that I am an introvert hiding in an extroverts body. That won't change.

Emotional intelligence continually comes up when I teach meditation.  One of the first things I ask is, what are your desires to meditate, and what was one thing that brought you here to learn how to meditate?  Very often, the response I hear is to stop being so emotional and to stop being reactive.  I also understand their to desire to balance their emotions, logic, and reasoning. 

At the beginning of this episode, I asked how you were feeling.  You likely had to pause for a minute and think about it.  It's not easy to tune into your own emotions.  Those who can tune in to their feelings are excellent leaders because they also can easily tune into the feelings of those around them.  For example, if I am in tune with my emotions and feelings, I can easily tune in to the emotions and feelings of perhaps an employee I am meeting.  I can use what I have learned about my employee's feelings and emotions to determine my actions; I want my actions to have the most significant outcome and success for myself and my employees.  The act of properly using your emotional brain isn't only applicable to your employees; it applies to your family, your friends, and everyone you come in contact with.  Tuning in to your feelings and those around isn't as easy as it sounds.  Our emotions are coming at us so fast that it seems that they do not travel through our brain in a logical order. We can fix this!

What are emotions? Emotions are a neurological response to very strong stimuli. Your rational brain needs to catch up to your feelings.  As your emotions are coming through your brainstem and entering your brain, we need to differentiate and discriminate amongst those feelings before they get to our executive prefrontal cortex, before we react. 

In meditation, we are helping our brain to become more aware of our feelings and emotions; and also our bodies.  The more we meditate, the better we are at discriminating and tuning in to our own and others' emotions resulting in more rational thinking and decision making.  There will be fewer days where you say to yourself, "I wish I didn't make that decision based on my crappy mood."  You will have more control over your reactions when your employee or your spouse is upset.  You will be able to identify that your emotions are high because their emotions are high, which will lead to better decisions and successful outcomes.

Years ago, I was teaching a woman who had a 5-year-old child.  This woman just wanted to be able to deal with her 5-year-old.  In her words, her child was cute, adorable, but crazy.  She likely would have preferred for me to teach meditation to her child instead, but I believe mom must learn how to meditate first.  I taught her about body scanning, and how our bodies are brilliantly intuned with our emotions.  If we are in tune with our bodies, we will be in tune with our feelings.  The woman began to notice, in real-time, that when she was feeling wound up, her child would also become wound up.  The calmer she grew, her child began to respond and become calm.  Simple but profound.

When you are meditating, you are training yourself to be more aware of sensations.  Noticing when things change, noticing what our triggers are.  Emotional intelligence requires clear communication between the rational part of your brain and the emotional center. 

Think of a seesaw.  You have a brain on one side and a heart on the other.  You might know someone so smart, but you want to smack them because everything they say comes from a high intellectual level but is missing any trace of emotion.  Often, they make decisions based on their highly logical brain but fail because no emotions were considered.  

Logic, reason, and emotion, how do we get all these parts of the brain working together? 

Meditation helps you become in touch with your self-awareness in real-time.  Self-awareness in real-time and emotional awareness helps your brain get one more second to catch up.  In that one second, magic can happen.  Your anterior cingulate, the part that helps balance your brain; it lights up when you are meditating.  The practice and training are helping balance your brain. 

In 2017, Daniel Goleman wrote a subsequent book called Altered Traits - Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body. Worth reading!

While you are meditating, I would like you to notice sensations.  I always say, "get out of the thinking mind and enter the feeling mind" and "be a human being and not a human doing."  Start your meditation with a body scan, and think to yourself, "How am I feeling right now?", "What am I feeling?" and "Where am I feeling it?" You might start to think about how long have you felt this way; you might even want to name that emotion.  Then think, how is this emotion affecting me right now in my performance in my life, home or work. Devote your meditation to getting in touch with the feeling part of you.  Sometimes, suddenly that action of I know what to do comes up.  In that action, there is action, not reaction. 

To summarize; you can change your emotional intelligence, and you can be as great as you want to be.  I know you want to be great because I know you want to be in a world where you can perceive your emotions and those around you.  You don't live under a rock, we have people around us all the time, and I know that you are a caring and compassionate person.  If you only take one thing away from this episode it is that meditation does a lot of great stuff, including helping your emotional intelligence. 

Try some of this stuff in your meditation.  See how it feels.  Shoot me a text, DM, email, or a smoke signal, tell me how it's going. 

That's it for today, Tators!  

Alexa Z Meditates Website

In today's episode, we are going to shed some light on multitasking. You might be tired of hearing about multitasking, and monotasking is getting a little blase. If you are like me, repetition is necessary. I wear the badge of honor when it comes to multitasking. 

In the past 30 years, any interview I had, when asked what my three top skills were, multitasking was always one of them. As I get older, I still think that I do well when it comes to multitasking. However, I see I don't get as much done as I used to.  

Often there are distractions, mind-wandering, and more often than not, my top three tasks on my to-do list were not completed. I now know that those top three are the three that move the needle. I must prioritize my top three tasks. Multitasking is a thing of the past. The new cool kids, slow down, get more done, are more accurate, down goes the stress, and up goes the productivity.  

Does it sound like you need a dose of that? Or, do you believe you are one of the chosen ones and are a great multitasker? Stay tuned! Multitasking is not fun. Most of us are endlessly and unsuccessfully trying to make the needle move.  

Intro

Hey there! Alexa Z here! First, let me start off by saying if you are driving, walking, washing dishes, folding towels, and also listening to me, that's okay. You can do rote tasks in multiples. My motto is to keep it simple. Let's make this short and sweet, so you can go forth and get stuff done. Plus, facts are facts; you can't argue how the brain works.  

When you are splitting your resources or your attention on multiple things, you start to slide down the slippery slope to inaccuracies. Multitasking isn't doing multiple things at the same time. It's content switching. The brain does not like to go forward to do one task; then, when you start another task, you have to put your brain in reverse. It may just be for a split second, put your mind in reverse, now forward to the next task. Back-up, go forward, back-up, go forward. This back and forth causes the brain to become exhausted, resulting in a 50% error rate, and it takes twice as long to complete a task.  

Have you heard of the saying, "if you want something done, ask a busy person"? I do agree, but now I have reformated that thought. Asking a busy person is fine as long as they move slowly, not sloth-like but undistracted from task to task. 

Our brain is never doing two things at the same time; the mind is merely switching back and forth. As you switch back in forth, there is a residue that is left, which causes your brain to be unclear. When have you multitask for an entire day and felt great? Your brain has a process. For example, you want ice cream. The anterior part of your brain sets that goal; the posterior part of the prefrontal brain helps the rest of you go to the freezer and get the ice cream. That might be a silly example, but imagine that your brain is going through that process with important tasks. Your brain is continually setting goals and processing how to get it done in multiple fashions. 

We get such a high when checking things off of our to-do list. Let's use our electronic devices as an example. We have multiple tabs opened, email, instant messenger, and we are working on a task. We don't have a plan. If you are on vacation and have some work you have to address, most likely, you create a plan to make sure that you still spend time and are present with your family while taking care of responsibility for your job. You might set a specific time to check your emails once a day so that you are not distracted while doing activities with your family. When you set a particular time to check on your emails, you can focus and get through them much more quickly than if you had been checking your email throughout the day. When you always check your email, your mind wanders, and you end up on Instagram, Facebook, etc. Your mind is wandering 47% of the time, switching tasks constantly, and you wonder why you are not getting any task completed. It has been said that you forget 1 out of 3 tasks.  

Have you ever learned to juggle? It is very challenging. Juggling is a lot like mindfulness. As you switch and grab the different objects, you must concentrate on one object to catch and toss it before the next object comes. I want to learn to juggle as it is an excellent mindfulness practice.  

What is effected by multitasking? Everything! Multitasking decreases accuracy, crushes your creative thinking, you become anxious, it hurts short-term memory, and time is lost. 

Exercise: Time yourself

1. Write, "I can multitask." 
2. Stop
3. Write, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13."  
4. Stop
5. Write both "I can multitask" and "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13." together but go back and forth from "I can multitask" and the number sequence for each character. For example, write "I" in one line, then "1" below it, back and write "c," and back down write "2"...

This activity shows that multitasking does not help you get tasks done quicker or accurately. 

How does meditation help with multitasking? Meditation trains your brain to focus on one thing at a time. When you meditate, you might use one of the following to focus on: breath, mantra, or your body. The brain and body are working together. It is now scientifically known that we have a body, mind, and energy system. It is a beautiful feeling when they are in sync. Meditation trains your brain to ignore distractions. While meditating, you can focus on your breath, notice the distraction, and return to your breath. Maintaining a regular meditation practice helps your neuropathways, reactivity, and makes doing multiple tasks much more manageable.  

Keep up with your daily meditation and notice how much you get done. Go with monotasking and get rid of multitasking.  

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Over the past few years, I have intimately watched my Mother's cognitive health decline. Trying to diagnose Alzheimer's, Dementia, accurately is tough and quite humiliating. Heck, I am embarrassed that I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night. I can't imagine how my Mom felt taking memory tests. But I will never forget the look in her eyes when she asked me after the first test, "I did ok, right?" It was quite a while before we figured out what was wrong or at least had a good picture of her brain health. I don't think we ever really know precisely where all the problems lie in these diseases. I know as her daughter, I will never really understand what is going on, or perhaps I will never believe all that the doctors tell me. My Mom is my Mom, no one else's. I know far better than the doctors what she used to be like. She was bright, funny, intelligent, bitchy, annoying, and a bit of a badass. Oh crap, I think some people might describe me this way.

Yikes, does that mean I too could slide down the slippery slope of cognitive decline? Now now, hang on; this is a motivational podcast, not a morbid one. Let's talk about what we can do to help preserve what we have in that brain in our skull.  I believe that we CAN have a significant impact on slowing our decline, and according to a lot of medical people out there, they seem to agree! Now grab a glass of water since your brain is said to be around 70%, and water can help your memory. So, stop saying you hate running to the bathroom. Why? Are you worried it will add to many steps to your Fitbit? Hang tight, and let's have a memorable episode.

Hey there, Alexa Z here!  In the last episode, where I interview Dr. McDevitt and Nurse Tolley at Turning Point, it hit home when we discussed individuals and their whole health.  It is important that we look at ourselves as whole people.   It is best if you look at it all, from nutrition, stress, sleep, etc.  I am not a doctor, but I loved talking to them, learning, seeing the big picture, and I love the combination of eastern and western medicine.  I like simplicity.  I am going to simplify taking the first steps to become healthier.  When it comes to memory and cognitive decline, every day, someone mentions that their memory is terrible or is getting worse or say, "I have always had a bad memory."  Stop labeling yourself! 

I am going to wrap this episode with my personal story.  My mother has been diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's, typical aging, and hydrocephalus.  Her doctors do not believe that hydrocephalus is affecting her memory, only her ability to walk.  For now, I am going to leave out hydrocephalus and focus on dementia and Alzheimer's.  I am not a doctor; here is my version in defining (laymen terms):

Dementia- nonreversible, decline in mental function, typically vascular.   Dementia can also be a catch-all for several other disorders. 

Alzheimer's - considered a common form of dementia, a specific decline in mental function, slow, and irreversible. 

My mom has a little bit of everything.  Which causes me to question, what symptoms are related to what, how long will it take for things to progress, what does each part of her brain look.  I want to look at how my mom lived her life because when it comes to her lifelong struggle with anxiety, she seems to have passed those qualities on to me.  My mom had a lot of chronic stress and worrying was a full-time job for her.  Her nutrition was decent, but she has always had digestive issues and at one point was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.  Never did a day go by when she wasn't commenting on her stomach distress. She felt empowered when I found a cookbook for her that had recipes to help with irritable bowel syndrome. Soon after, her symptoms went away!   My mom's overall sleep seemed great and slept an enormous amount.  I am not sure, but perhaps she slept more due to her anxiety and depression.  As she got older, she slept more and more.  When you age, sleep isn't as beneficial to your health; perhaps she slept too much!   As far as her hormones, she claims that during menopause, she felt miserable, nervous, and teary.  My mom's life isn't all negative, but it is her reality.  I believe that most of the significant health issues stemmed from anxiety. 

The positive side of what I remember about her life was that she and my father had terrific friendships and a great support structure.  My parents were very spiritual.  They were very involved with the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus.  We had a great family, but most of our extended family lived out of town. 

Did her way of living, her way of dealing with anxiety bring on these diseases, or did the diseases cause her to have a chronically stressed system?  Chronic stress is typically associated with issues with sleep, emotions, and nutrition. 

My mom grew up with the regular stresses of life.  Especially stress related to my sister and me.  Also, stress with finances, both my parents always worked multiple jobs.  How did my mom deal with all of these stressors?  She went to therapy and received anxiety medication.  If I could go back and change things, I would throw away all her anxiety drugs.  I do believe that drugs are can help people in specific situations.  However, in my experience with my mother, she was prescribed a narcotic medication (unnamed).  The narcotic (unnamed) has a significant effect on a person's memory.  My mother is currently in a dementia facility and is still taking that same narcotic because she has been on it for so long that if taken off, it would be detrimental to her quality of life.  It is a horrible drug, and she has been on it for decades. A giant thank you to the doctors who monitored her medications. Sorry but I am angry; she should never have been on that drug for so long. I would increase her self-care, improve her nutrition, and analyze her digestive health to determine the overall cause of her health issues. 

I want something different for myself.  I grew up with anxiety.  Meditation is my pill and my vitamin.  I worry, especially when I can't remember what I had for dinner or when I am unfocused because I have so much going on in my life.  I need to care for myself now. 

Let's go back to the episode with Dr. McDevitt and Nurse Tolley.  They discussed how they evaluate patients' lives and what they prescribe.  They prescribe natural treatments, mixing eastern and western medicine.  They also look at patients' overall life to include nutrition, sleep, and stress. 

Stress affects three parts of your brain: the amygdala, which processes your emotions, the hippocampus where you learn and keep memories, and the prefrontal-cortex cognitive behavior, decision making.  Stress is one of the most common causes of changes in the brain.  Stress and anxiety is the underlying part of my mom's health issues.  In a study where rats were exposed to chronic stress, the results were that the rat's hippocampus shrunk!  In an updated review, rats showed that even brief exposure to stress also affected the rat's brain. 

Meditation has a significant impact on stress.  Meditation is a practice to train your brain and allows you to lessen stress.  Also, it will enable your body to get in the "rest and digest" mode.  As you meditate, you change parts of your brain, the connections, and neuropathways are loosened, resulting in less anxiety.  If you have less anxiety, you have fewer distractions.  Your brain creates unity and begins to work better.  Meditation has an incredible impact on our brain.  Dr. McDevitt and Nurse Tolley stated that they evaluate their patients by analyzing their nutrition, digestive health, hormones, adrenals, sensitivities, toxic environments, and we always prescribe meditation.  However, they said meditation is one of the hardest things for patients to learn.  They indicated that they refer many of their patients to contact me to learn how to meditate.  They were surprised to hear that not very many contact me.  We have excellent testimonials from people who have built meditation into their lives.  I am not sure why meditation is difficult, it is your natural state of being, but I am here to help make meditation easier.  You were born to meditate; you can meditate today! 

Today's episode isn't about being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Dementia or having a mental decline as you age.  The focus is on giving you the motivation to change certain aspects of your life to improve your overall health.  I opened up my heart and shared my mom's story with you and expressed my desire to go back and change things for her.  As an advocate for those suffering from these diseases and for all the caregivers, I am right there with you! It is not easy.  Let's help them and help ourselves! Let's take one step at a time.  Meditation helps your brain, and it's easy.  I would love to teach you!

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Over the past few years, I have intimately watched my Mother's cognitive health decline. Trying to diagnose Alzheimer's, Dementia, accurately is tough and quite humiliating. Heck, I am embarrassed that I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night. I can't imagine how my Mom felt taking memory tests. But I will never forget the look in her eyes when she asked me after the first test, "I did ok, right?" It was quite a while before we figured out what was wrong or at least had a good picture of her brain health. I don't think we ever really know precisely where all the problems lie in these diseases. I know as her daughter, I will never really understand what is going on, or perhaps I will never believe all that the doctors tell me. My Mom is my Mom, no one else's. I know far better than the doctors what she used to be like. She was bright, funny, intelligent, bitchy, annoying, and a bit of a badass. Oh crap, I think some people might describe me this way.

Yikes, does that mean I too could slide down the slippery slope of cognitive decline? Now now, hang on; this is a motivational podcast, not a morbid one. Let's talk about what we can do to help preserve what we have in that brain in our skull.  I believe that we CAN have a significant impact on slowing our decline, and according to a lot of medical people out there, they seem to agree! Now grab a glass of water since your brain is said to be around 70%, and water can help your memory. So, stop saying you hate running to the bathroom. Why? Are you worried it will add to many steps to your Fitbit? Hang tight, and let's have a memorable episode.

Hey there, Alexa Z here!  In the last episode, where I interview Dr. McDevitt and Nurse Tolley at Turning Point, it hit home when we discussed individuals and their whole health.  It is important that we look at ourselves as whole people.   It is best if you look at it all, from nutrition, stress, sleep, etc.  I am not a doctor, but I loved talking to them, learning, seeing the big picture, and I love the combination of eastern and western medicine.  I like simplicity.  I am going to simplify taking the first steps to become healthier.  When it comes to memory and cognitive decline, every day, someone mentions that their memory is terrible or is getting worse or say, "I have always had a bad memory."  Stop labeling yourself! 

I am going to wrap this episode with my personal story.  My mother has been diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's, typical aging, and hydrocephalus.  Her doctors do not believe that hydrocephalus is affecting her memory, only her ability to walk.  For now, I am going to leave out hydrocephalus and focus on dementia and Alzheimer's.  I am not a doctor; here is my version in defining (laymen terms):

Dementia- nonreversible, decline in mental function, typically vascular.   Dementia can also be a catch-all for several other disorders. 

Alzheimer's - considered a common form of dementia, a specific decline in mental function, slow, and irreversible. 

My mom has a little bit of everything.  Which causes me to question, what symptoms are related to what, how long will it take for things to progress, what does each part of her brain look.  I want to look at how my mom lived her life because when it comes to her lifelong struggle with anxiety, she seems to have passed those qualities on to me.  My mom had a lot of chronic stress and worrying was a full-time job for her.  Her nutrition was decent, but she has always had digestive issues and at one point was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.  Never did a day go by when she wasn't commenting on her stomach distress. She felt empowered when I found a cookbook for her that had recipes to help with irritable bowel syndrome. Soon after, her symptoms went away!   My mom's overall sleep seemed great and slept an enormous amount.  I am not sure, but perhaps she slept more due to her anxiety and depression.  As she got older, she slept more and more.  When you age, sleep isn't as beneficial to your health; perhaps she slept too much!   As far as her hormones, she claims that during menopause, she felt miserable, nervous, and teary.  My mom's life isn't all negative, but it is her reality.  I believe that most of the significant health issues stemmed from anxiety. 

The positive side of what I remember about her life was that she and my father had terrific friendships and a great support structure.  My parents were very spiritual.  They were very involved with the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus.  We had a great family, but most of our extended family lived out of town. 

Did her way of living, her way of dealing with anxiety bring on these diseases, or did the diseases cause her to have a chronically stressed system?  Chronic stress is typically associated with issues with sleep, emotions, and nutrition. 

My mom grew up with the regular stresses of life.  Especially stress related to my sister and me.  Also, stress with finances, both my parents always worked multiple jobs.  How did my mom deal with all of these stressors?  She went to therapy and received anxiety medication.  If I could go back and change things, I would throw away all her anxiety drugs.  I do believe that drugs are can help people in specific situations.  However, in my experience with my mother, she was prescribed a narcotic medication (unnamed).  The narcotic (unnamed) has a significant effect on a person's memory.  My mother is currently in a dementia facility and is still taking that same narcotic because she has been on it for so long that if taken off, it would be detrimental to her quality of life.  It is a horrible drug, and she has been on it for decades. A giant thank you to the doctors who monitored her medications. Sorry but I am angry; she should never have been on that drug for so long. I would increase her self-care, improve her nutrition, and analyze her digestive health to determine the overall cause of her health issues. 

I want something different for myself.  I grew up with anxiety.  Meditation is my pill and my vitamin.  I worry, especially when I can't remember what I had for dinner or when I am unfocused because I have so much going on in my life.  I need to care for myself now. 

Let's go back to the episode with Dr. McDevitt and Nurse Tolley.  They discussed how they evaluate patients' lives and what they prescribe.  They prescribe natural treatments, mixing eastern and western medicine.  They also look at patients' overall life to include nutrition, sleep, and stress. 

Stress affects three parts of your brain: the amygdala, which processes your emotions, the hippocampus where you learn and keep memories, and the prefrontal-cortex cognitive behavior, decision making.  Stress is one of the most common causes of changes in the brain.  Stress and anxiety is the underlying part of my mom's health issues.  In a study where rats were exposed to chronic stress, the results were that the rat's hippocampus shrunk!  In an updated review, rats showed that even brief exposure to stress also affected the rat's brain. 

Meditation has a significant impact on stress.  Meditation is a practice to train your brain and allows you to lessen stress.  Also, it will enable your body to get in the "rest and digest" mode.  As you meditate, you change parts of your brain, the connections, and neuropathways are loosened, resulting in less anxiety.  If you have less anxiety, you have fewer distractions.  Your brain creates unity and begins to work better.  Meditation has an incredible impact on our brain.  Dr. McDevitt and Nurse Tolley stated that they evaluate their patients by analyzing their nutrition, digestive health, hormones, adrenals, sensitivities, toxic environments, and we always prescribe meditation.  However, they said meditation is one of the hardest things for patients to learn.  They indicated that they refer many of their patients to contact me to learn how to meditate.  They were surprised to hear that not very many contact me.  We have excellent testimonials from people who have built meditation into their lives.  I am not sure why meditation is difficult, it is your natural state of being, but I am here to help make meditation easier.  You were born to meditate; you can meditate today! 

Today's episode isn't about being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Dementia or having a mental decline as you age.  The focus is on giving you the motivation to change certain aspects of your life to improve your overall health.  I opened up my heart and shared my mom's story with you and expressed my desire to go back and change things for her.  As an advocate for those suffering from these diseases and for all the caregivers, I am right there with you! It is not easy.  Let's help them and help ourselves! Let's take one step at a time.  Meditation helps your brain, and it's easy.  I would love to teach you!

Resources:

Rat Study

Connect to Alexa Z

Summary:

In this episode, Alexa interviews Dr. Danielle Mcdevitt and Nurse Practitioner, Katie Tolley, at their practice in Turning Point Integrative Health Center in Annapolis, Maryland.  They discuss what exactly integrative medicine is.  Dr. Mcdevitt identifies the root cause of many people's health issues like inflammation and explains why meditation is her number one prescribed treatment.  Nurse Tolley addresses how integrative medicine is not just for adults, but how important it is in pediatric care.  Together, they are treating patients from a whole life perspective.

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Highlights:

What is integrative medicine?

The root issue is inflammation.

How the "fight or flight" response affects your body and how meditation can help.

Relationship between adrenals and hormones.

Resources:

Turning Point Health Center

Bio's of the Health Professionals at Turning Point

Before we get engrossed in today's episode, let me give you a moment to hit subscribe. I know you want to, and like me, you often forget. You wake up in the middle of the night and say, ah heck I forgot to hit subscribe for that nice lady who really is trying to motivate me. So here you go. Do do do do Thanks!

In today's episode, I am going to shed some light on "Who am I?" or maybe I should say, "Who are You?" We are now starting the second full week of 2020, the gyms are still packed, and I am not sick of salad with a protein on top yet. I will give it a few more weeks.

It is usually around the end of the month when people start saying to me, "Gosh, I was so excited for 2020, I was going to change my whole life, and now I have no idea what I even want to change." I hope that I get this episode out fast enough that you can skip that question by spending a little more time looking inwards at "Who you are?" but in a straightforward fashion, no fancy spreadsheets or in-depth discussions, just the simple practice of asking.

Whenever someone says I want to change my life, I always ask them first, who are they? They immediately get confused and start thinking hard. Then they get disappointed because they never can come up with an answer. I am here to tell you, don't worry, remember the answers lie within. You now want to tell me to bugger off, but I am going to ask you for a few minutes to hold tight. I am going to give you an exercise that might make the rest of your year easy peasy.

Hey There, Alexa Z here. I am all alone podcasting in my closet because my Tator Mobile is winter cold. I made a little house under my staircase in the basement. I thought I was incredibly brilliant, nailing up blankets and using a fake fur blanket for my table. I look like I am in a bear's den. Then dogs starting running up and down the stairs, and the furnace kicked on at the adjoining wall. I didn't think that through. So now I sit all alone without the furnace on (cold again by not as bad as my van) with 4 dogs locked in my bedroom 3 floors up. Ok sorry to digress but I know I always wondered where people podcast. Clothes closets are good too, but I get distracted by all the "stuff"

Ok, where was I – oh yeah Who am I?

Self-inquiry is a meditation practice that is older than dirt. It is not analyzing your childhood or looking in a magic ball. It is a questioning meditation that fits beautifully into other practices or can be used all by itself.

Before you start looking to change your life you need to get in touch with the most important person, YOU! The brilliant part of you that is filled with wisdom and intellect, passion and intuition. Most of us tend to forget how awesome we are, and this questioning meditation is the perfect way to train our brain (remember meditation is a training) to quiet down and connect with the thinker of the thoughts.

It can be fun as long as you don't get to hung up on analyzing it. The Buddha said he wouldn't get up from the Bodhi tree until he knew who he was but let's just start with a short practice ok?

There are several questions that we use in this "Self-Inquiry" practice but today we will just use one question "Who Am I?" When I teach SEED Method (Simple easy everyday meditation) I usually introduce this about halfway through the class, but I just felt like this is a great time of the year to give it a try.

Follow the audio for tips on how to start this amazing practice!

Today I am going to shed some light on how to stick to habits. Although I am zeroing in on meditation, this really applies to all new practices that you may want to form. The significant part is that a meditation habit actually feeds into all of the other habits, makes them easier to stick with and more productive. If you are looking to form an exercise habit, meditation helps with all of your body’s physiological systems, including your metabolism. If you are too tired to exercise, meditation helps with sleep. Ok, how about how difficult it is to exercise when you’re sick, oh good meditation improves your immune system too. Hate how you look in spandex? Meditation increases your confidence.

It all boils down to; knowing what you should do is one thing but committing to it is what is most critical. How many times have you made the same resolution year after year? So how is that working for you?  Ok, I will shut up now, but you get the point. Stay with me, and in a moment, I will let you know how to start the meditation habit and stick with it!

Happy New Year! Alexa Z here, and one of my commitments in 2020 is to help you and motivate you to make this a great year. Today I will help you with habit and ask that you help me with something too…hit subscribe and leave a review. Not only does it make me smile but will help to build our tribe of tators (my word for cool meditators) – it takes a village, so help me build it ok?

January will be devoted to building the best you ever! 

The time is now for starting new habits and getting pumped to succeed, right? I am sure you have heard that it takes 21 days or 90 to create a habit. The other day I heard 77 days. Well, the truth is that there really is no reliable research on how many days. The 21-day habit theory started with a plastic surgeon named Maxwell Maltz in the 50’s. It was referring to getting a nose job, and he found it took about 21 days to get used to seeing your new face. The discussion then grew to include things such as the feeling of a phantom limb after amputation, again 21 days, and so on. One person told another person, and the story grew. But it really isn’t a fact. The truth is some people might need two months, and some might need ten months. For now, don’t worry about it, and let’s just get started so we can succeed and celebrate.

What research is quick to point out is that accountability has a significant impact on sticking with a habit.

10 Tips to sticking to a habit

1. Write it down –for example – I want to meditate 20 minutes twice a day
2. Start small. Set yourself up for habit success, start with 5 minutes, heck maybe 2! Start with walking a few blocks before you run a mile right?
3. Celebrate your success. In your calendar, give yourself some treats. After three days I get a bowl of ice cream, a new book on meditation, a puppy? Ok don’t go with a puppy
4. Get excited about it – really sit down and think about why you want to learn to meditate. List 10 reasons for how it could improve your life. Refer back to it when you miss a day. Motivation is key to creating long term behavior changes. When motivation is high jump on it!
5. Share the list with friends and family. Not only will they lend support, but you might convince them to join along with you.
6. Ask people to check up on you. Tell them to put it in their calendar. “Hey Suzy, how is that meditation going?” Success is said to increase exponentially when you are held accountable!
7. Keep a journal, and keep it simple. Insight timer, a checkmark in your planner?
8. Take time to reflect – One of the videos (Michael Hyatt Full Focus Planner) I heard that 15 minutes of reflection time could boost productivity by 23% after only ten days. Think about it; when you reflect on what you are doing, you are connecting back to number 4 -get excited about it. Keep renewing your list of why you started this healthy habit.
9. Post it on your mirror over your toothbrush (Brush, Spit, Meditate)
10. An excellent old contest never hurts – the 7-day challenge

Now get to it and celebrate. Remember, you are your one-person study, and so far, everyone I know who creates this healthy habit has found their research to be quite successful.

From a client:  3 days into her practice “It feels like something has shifted already in a really positive way”

8 days after that: I missed days over the weekend again but started this again this morning – and to that I say hold tight another episode coming!

https://alexazmeditates.com

It's the last Monday of the year! Did you set your intentions? Did you listen to last week's podcast on resolutions, intentions, and goals? If not, I hope you will take a moment and go back and listen and start to look inwards for that personal space where you can create fantastic intentions for your life and start living the life you want to live - start right now! 

I am hoping that one of your intentions for 2020 is to live a life with less stress through the practice of meditation. If it is, good, because today I gift you less stress through a beautiful guided meditation. The method I teach is called "SEED" Simple Easy Everyday Meditation that I learned from my teacher Sarah McLean many years ago. Meditation is for everyone. It is a lie if you tell yourself, I am not the type that can learn to meditate. There is no magic type, only the kind that resonates with you. Drop all the brand names and stop worrying that you are picking the wrong method and start practicing!  I teach this one because, although I have studied many others, this one makes sense to me, and I have never taught someone and had them walk away and say, "Oh, that method is not for me."  Here is a little secret...the methods are all doing the same thing when it comes to training your brain to live in a quieter, less stressed environment where your nervous system calms, and you become more focused, engaged, and less reactive. Today all I ask is that you give this a try. Push pause, find a quiet place, close your eyes, and let's meditate together.

No expectations, no judgments, no trying hard. Just sit and be.

If you are having trouble finding life's intentions, stop looking, and start listening. We all know that the answers lie within. We need to get quiet to hear our wisdom.

Maybe you want to come back to this episode and listen to this guided meditation a few times, perhaps every day or even twice a day.

Join me on January 6th, and I will shed some light on the "Who am I and Why?"  There is no rush to get your intentions set, enjoy the process.

Tis that time of the year, right? How does this sound: I am going to lose weight because I am fat and hate my body. I am going to spend more time with my kids because I stink at parenting. I am going to try and find a relationship with a different kind of person, not all the jerks I always seem to attract. I need to make more money because I never have enough.  Sound familiar?

In this episode, we are going to get a grip on goals, intentions, and resolutions and begin to set ourselves up for personal success in 2020. We will start with their differences and see if we can find a blueprint that works for you.

Before we go down the path of setting unattainable goals and becoming disappointed or set goals so low, we jump over them and don't create much of a life impact.  Or we announce a resolution so strong that it might cause an upset with some other desires we have for 2020. For example, begin a new job to make more money, but forget that the 3 hour a day commute will crush your other goal to spend more time with loved ones. First, we need to take a look inwards and define what it is that we are genuinely trying to shift. Is it our personality? Hopefully not, that's not going to happen. Is it the labeling of ourselves? Yes, we need to look at that. Most notable are your intentions. How do you want to live? What do we want our lives to be about?

So please intend to continue to listen to this episode but first do a little dance during my short jingle. Fa la la la la la la la - No not that one. Or you can take a moment to hit subscribe and then I can do a little dance too.