Each year my organization is invited to participate in the California Friday Night Live Partnership's Spotlight Festival, a 3-day conference for middle school and high school youth who have worked year-round to learn about problem gambling and create PSA videos addressing this issue in their community. This was my first year getting to attend and it was hands down the best conference I've ever been to. Some of the highlights included an award show, where all the kids dress up, walk the red carpet, and get to talk about their work; a small-group tour of California Adventure to learn about the Disney process of animation; and a full evening to just play at Disneyland. I was so fortunate to get to tag along and experience all this with the teens (and not be directly responsible for chaperoning any of them!).
The "price" for getting to attend this festival was that I was asked to conduct a workshop. I present workshops all the time through my job, so it should have been no big deal, but usually I co-present with my boss, who is a well-loved, kid-at-heart comedian, and we do the same routine over and over. For this conference, they wanted us each to present something fresh and unique. I was at a loss, but my boss actually was the one who suggested I try to incorporate the teen yoga and meditation training I had recently received. I hadn't thought of the intersection of yoga and problem gambling before, but as I was brainstorming, the connection became clear. Problem gambling and addictive behaviors often begin as coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, pain, and trauma. Gambling can be a way to escape one's emotions, or to feel alive again. Showing young people how to relieve stress and cope with pain in healthy ways is an important avenue of prevention.
With this in mind, I designed a workshop called "Relax! Conquering Stress through Mind, Body, and Breath". It took a lot of thought and multiple revisions to create something I felt teens would appreciate, and be willing to try in front of strangers. I started by normalizing stress. Everyone experiences stress, and in some cases, stress is a very critical survival function. But being in a constant state of stress is very taxing and unhealthy. We then talked about how stress impacts our mind and body, and that the reverse is true too: we can use our mind, body, and breath to reduce stress. From there we did deep-belly breathing, a few simple yoga poses (mountain pose, forward bend, and child's pose), some neck stretches, an eating meditation, a body and sound meditation, and finally, an exercise in replacing negative core beliefs with positive self-affirmations. It was a very packed 75 minutes, but not rushed.
I haven't gotten my evaluation data back yet, but I feel like the sessions went well (I did two back to back). Everyone participated, there was minimal snickering, and a handful of kids told me throughout the days that followed that the relaxation felt great, and that they would try some of my techniques at home. A couple teenagers even complimented my music selections, which was really flattering since I'm old and all :P.
Ironically, I felt extremely stressed the weeks, days, and even minutes leading up to my workshop. I felt like an imposter and a hypocrite presenting this information, since I am not exactly the most chill, go-with-the-flow kind of gal. I don't always take deep breaths, consistently practice meditation, or take the best care of my body. At many moments, I badly regretted signing up to do this. But I tried really hard to practice self-compassion and stop focusing on why I was NOT qualified. I tried to remind myself to be present, since anxiety is generally based on fear-based predictions of the future. I even created an affirmation for my phone screen.
In the end, it was completely worth it to conquer my fear and do something I worried I couldn't. I felt distinctly proud of myself, which I don't think I've felt in quite a while. I have spent much of my life avoiding things that I think could result in failure. I generally like to avoid physical proof of my shortcomings and stay within the bounds of what I think I can do well. But as I've grown older, I've realized that is no way to live. It is the edge of our comfort zone where the most growth can happen. I like to think that beyond yoga poses, I demonstrated something even more important to those teens, which is that we are all a work in progress. We don't arrive at the answers once we reach a certain age or stage. Life is about learning, unlearning, and learning more, and we have to take ownership of that process. All I asked was for them to challenge themselves and keep an open mind throughout, and I am glad I forced myself to do that as well.
I was so high on courage after my workshop, I even went on the Tower of Terror. Okay, maybe it was courage, maybe it was peer pressure...
The "price" for getting to attend this festival was that I was asked to conduct a workshop. I present workshops all the time through my job, so it should have been no big deal, but usually I co-present with my boss, who is a well-loved, kid-at-heart comedian, and we do the same routine over and over. For this conference, they wanted us each to present something fresh and unique. I was at a loss, but my boss actually was the one who suggested I try to incorporate the teen yoga and meditation training I had recently received. I hadn't thought of the intersection of yoga and problem gambling before, but as I was brainstorming, the connection became clear. Problem gambling and addictive behaviors often begin as coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, pain, and trauma. Gambling can be a way to escape one's emotions, or to feel alive again. Showing young people how to relieve stress and cope with pain in healthy ways is an important avenue of prevention.
With this in mind, I designed a workshop called "Relax! Conquering Stress through Mind, Body, and Breath". It took a lot of thought and multiple revisions to create something I felt teens would appreciate, and be willing to try in front of strangers. I started by normalizing stress. Everyone experiences stress, and in some cases, stress is a very critical survival function. But being in a constant state of stress is very taxing and unhealthy. We then talked about how stress impacts our mind and body, and that the reverse is true too: we can use our mind, body, and breath to reduce stress. From there we did deep-belly breathing, a few simple yoga poses (mountain pose, forward bend, and child's pose), some neck stretches, an eating meditation, a body and sound meditation, and finally, an exercise in replacing negative core beliefs with positive self-affirmations. It was a very packed 75 minutes, but not rushed.
I haven't gotten my evaluation data back yet, but I feel like the sessions went well (I did two back to back). Everyone participated, there was minimal snickering, and a handful of kids told me throughout the days that followed that the relaxation felt great, and that they would try some of my techniques at home. A couple teenagers even complimented my music selections, which was really flattering since I'm old and all :P.
Ironically, I felt extremely stressed the weeks, days, and even minutes leading up to my workshop. I felt like an imposter and a hypocrite presenting this information, since I am not exactly the most chill, go-with-the-flow kind of gal. I don't always take deep breaths, consistently practice meditation, or take the best care of my body. At many moments, I badly regretted signing up to do this. But I tried really hard to practice self-compassion and stop focusing on why I was NOT qualified. I tried to remind myself to be present, since anxiety is generally based on fear-based predictions of the future. I even created an affirmation for my phone screen.
In the end, it was completely worth it to conquer my fear and do something I worried I couldn't. I felt distinctly proud of myself, which I don't think I've felt in quite a while. I have spent much of my life avoiding things that I think could result in failure. I generally like to avoid physical proof of my shortcomings and stay within the bounds of what I think I can do well. But as I've grown older, I've realized that is no way to live. It is the edge of our comfort zone where the most growth can happen. I like to think that beyond yoga poses, I demonstrated something even more important to those teens, which is that we are all a work in progress. We don't arrive at the answers once we reach a certain age or stage. Life is about learning, unlearning, and learning more, and we have to take ownership of that process. All I asked was for them to challenge themselves and keep an open mind throughout, and I am glad I forced myself to do that as well.
I was so high on courage after my workshop, I even went on the Tower of Terror. Okay, maybe it was courage, maybe it was peer pressure...
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