Find Your Calm: Stress-Reducing Practices for Busy Professionals

[LIGHT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. 

A laptop on a desk, with a small potted plant on one side and a red coffee mug on the other. On the screen of the laptop, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. 15 Years. Jessica Kearney appears on a video call at top right-hand corner of the image.

(SPEECH)
JESSICA KEARNEY: Hello, and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. I am Jessica Kearney, Vice President for Public Policy here at the Travelers Institute. And I am standing in today for our host, Joan Woodward. Welcome again to our webinar series. Before we get started, as always, I'd like to share our disclaimer about today's program. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: About Travelers Institute (registered trademark) Webinars. The Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) educational webinar series is presented by the Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers. This program is offered for informational and educational purposes only. You should consult with your medical or other professionals about any practices suggested by this program. Please note that this session is being recorded and may be used as Travelers deems appropriate. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. 

Text: Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Find Your Calm: Stress-Reducing Practices for Busy Professionals. Logos of Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Travelers, 15 Years. National African American Insurance Association. Insurance Association of Connecticut. Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA). Master's in Financial Technology (FinTech) Program at the University of Connecticut School of Business. MetroHartford Alliance.

(SPEECH)
I would also like to thank our webinar partners. Today we've got the National African American Insurance Association, the Insurance Association of Connecticut, CBIA, the Master's in FinTech Program at the University of Connecticut School of Business, and the MetroHartford Alliance. Welcome to all these groups and your members joining us on the line today. Thanks for being with us.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Forces at Work (service mark). Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. 

(SPEECH)
So to kick things off, I am really pleased to share something new from the Institute. We have a brand-new initiative called Forces at Work. This is hot off the presses, just launched last week, and its goal is really to help all of us navigate the modern-day workforce and the ever-evolving issues that we face as leaders within each of our own organizations. 

(DESCRIPTION)
A bullet point list appears one point at a time. Text: Risk Management and Insurance. Labor Market. Leadership and Management. Talent and Development. Employee Well-Being. 

(SPEECH)
If you've been with us here on our webinar series over the last few years, I have to say I have to give you some credit in all of this. This initiative was born directly out of your feedback and voting with your feet on programs that we've held over the years on topics like mental health, leading and managing through times of change, attracting the next generation of talent, and ways to lead healthier lives so that we're all able to bring our best selves to work and to our families and our personal lives. So this is near and dear to our hearts, and I hope you enjoy it. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Forces at Work (service mark). Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. A QR code, and an image of the cover of a paper, titled “Investing in Mental Well-Being: A Guide for Employers.” Marcos A. Iglesias, M.D., Vice President, Chief Medical Director, Travelers. 

(SPEECH)
We kicked off our programming with a symposium in Phoenix just earlier this month. And it was on worker mental well-being. And we also published at that event a white paper, Investing in Mental Well-Being: A Guide for Employers, which you can see here on screen. There's a QR code. And we can also drop it in the chat if you're interested in learning more about that or about our programs on this topic. 

And so we're coming to you here live in week two of this initiative on another topic that's critical to our success at work and in our personal lives. And that's how we can each better manage stress, build coping skills, become more resilient and, frankly, just allow ourselves to be present in the moment, as was titled this session, “Stress Management for Busy Professionals.”

So we appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. We know that there's so much going on in each of our lives and in the world right now. It's really as important as ever to tee up this topic and have an open conversation about it. So thank you for being here with us and taking the time with us.

So for the next hour-- very different, probably, from a normal day-- we are going to slow things down. And we're going to talk about mindfulness and meditation and yoga and other activities that can really help us all-- really be tools in our toolkit to help better manage our stress.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Speakers. Pictures, names, and titles of the speakers. Text: Jessica Kearney, Vice President, Public Policy; Travelers Institute, Travelers. Rebecca Pacheco - Yoga and Meditation Teacher. Author, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living and Do Your Om Thing. 

(SPEECH)
And to walk us through those practices, I am so excited to welcome my guest today. 

She is the author and renowned yoga teacher Rebecca Pacheco. Rebecca is an internationally recognized yoga and meditation teacher with more than two decades of experience. And I will note, going through all the audience feedback on the registration, I did see several people who had raised their hands and say, I've already taken one of Rebecca's classes. She's amazing. So I know she's well known to some of you.

She's trained NBA players, Olympic swimmers, C-suite executives, world-class ballerinas. I mean, the list is varied, and I can go on and on, but just to give you a flavor of some of her experience. She's the creator and sole content talent of the popular Runner's World yoga center as well as on-camera talent and co-producer of digital programs for Runner's World and Women's Health magazine. So if you're a runner, get your questions ready and put them in the Q&A.

She's got a lot of varied experience, including in that. Her award-winning yoga and wellness blog “Om Gal” was a trailblazer in the industry. She regularly contributes to The Boston Globe on a range of mind-body topics. And she's also author of two best-selling books, Do Your Om Thing and Still Life. She now teaches poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction at the University of Massachusetts Boston. And we are so thrilled to have her here on the program. Rebecca, welcome.

(DESCRIPTION)
Rebecca and Jessica appear in a split screen. 

(SPEECH)
REBECCA PACHECO: Hi. Hi, everyone. Hi, Jessica. Thank you so much for that really warm introduction. It has been a pleasure working with the public policy team to plan today's program. Thank you for having me. I am coming to you from very cold Boston, so I appreciate just the warmth and connection that we've already had putting together today's plan.

So I am going to share my screen in a moment. I don't have a ton of slides, but they're just going to anchor our attention because that's what this opportunity is about. We're going to pay attention to our attention, which really influences our entire lives, the experience of our lives. 

And in preparing to speak with everyone today, I started thinking about insurance. And I actually started thinking about mindfulness as a form of insurance for our minds, meditation as insurance for the mind, to make it a more hospitable place, to make our minds places where we might cultivate what matters to us, the qualities that matter most to us, things like clarity, connection, steadiness.

So I will bring up my screen in a moment. I'm going to share a few slides. I'll share the plan. Most of it, we're going to be practicing. We're going to be doing the thing rather than talking too much about it. So I'm excited for you all to join. Welcome, welcome. Here we go.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Find Your Calm: Stress-Reducing Practices for Busy Professionals. A mindfulness experience created for Travelers by Rebecca Pacheco - A picture of Rebecca sitting cross-legged on the floor, with her eyes closed and her arms resting on her knees, palms up. 

(SPEECH)
So as you know, we're calling today's program “Find Your Calm: Stress-Reducing Practices for Busy Professionals.” That's you. That's all of us. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, a quote. Text: The awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Jon Kabat-Zinn. 

(SPEECH)
And I thought to anchor us, we begin with just a brief definition of mindfulness. Many of you might be familiar with the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn. He's a pioneer in the field in terms of mindfulness practice, especially here in the West. 

I'm very honored to learn from him directly. He's read my two books. And what he says is very succinct. And I think it's a good way to just anchor us in the present moment today. Mindfulness is the awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose in the present moment nonjudgmentally.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Benefits of Mindfulness. A list of words and phrases arranged in a circular pattern. Text: Boost creativity. Lower blood pressure. Come back to your senses. Focus. Slow down. Mental space. See the moment clearly. Less stress. Connection. Go analog. Less chronic pain. Greater compassion. Better sleep. 

(SPEECH)
And I thought I would start with some of the benefits. I don't want to belabor them too much because I'm sure many of you have heard how beneficial mindfulness can be. So here is a visual. And while you take some of that in, I thought I would just read one page from my book Still Life about the benefits of meditation-- less than a page. I understand some of you will be getting a copy, so that's very exciting. I hope you enjoy it. 

The chapter opens, “Here are some things that can happen when you meditate. You feel less stressed. You sleep better. You walk through the world half asleep less often. Your blood pressure decreases. The part of your brain responsible for making sound decisions gets stronger. The likelihood that you remember someone's name increases.

You remember who you are. You experience less chronic pain in severity or frequency. You become a better listener to yourself and others. You become a better friend to yourself and others. You become a more patient parent. You become a more compassionate child. You taste your food. You recognize your connection to all beings and the Earth. You can hold a thought.

You can do just one thing. You can do the courageous thing. You pay attention. The impulsive part of your brain feels triggered and agitated less often. You remember to breathe. You love deeper. You pay attention. You remember to breathe. You live your life rather than life living you.”

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Today's Practices: 1. Movement. 2. Meditation. 3. Mind Map. 

(SPEECH)
OK, so are you in? These are our practices today. We're going to begin moving. And then we'll do a brief meditation. And then we'll do what's called a mind map. So you can begin moving with me wherever you're seated. You don't need to feel bashful about your neighbors in cubicles or desks nearby. It's going to be pretty contained. 

All right, so let's get started. Just put your feet on the earth. And maybe rest your hands in your lap. Roll your shoulders back, perhaps. And if it's comfortable for you, you can close your eyes. Now, I should just offer the caveat, for those of us who wear glasses, there's going to be a point in this little sequence that I've created where you'll probably want to take your glasses off. So I'm going to do that now, if that's OK.

(DESCRIPTION)
She takes off her glasses and rubs her face. 

(SPEECH)
So if you'd like to, you can close your eyes. And just begin with a couple grounding breaths. We're all-- except for me, of course, you're all muted. So you might take a deep breath in through the nose and an emphatic exhale. Really let it go out through the mouth. Maybe do that one or two more times.

And then I'd like you to take your hands to your heart center, to the middle of your chest, and just kind of quiet your heart. Let your spine be neutral. You don't need to puff your ribs out or anything. Just let your shoulders relax, and take a couple connective breaths, checking in with your heart today. Deep breath in. And let it go. 

And we'll start with just a simple neck stretch. So as you inhale, I'd like you to turn your head to the right as far as you can go. And then on the exhale, just very gently take it all the way to the other side, to the left. And do that at least two more times, inhaling one way and exhaling the other. Breathe in. And breathe out.

Start to feel your mind dropping down into your body, OK? Center your gaze. And then go ahead and take it up and down. So inhale. Look up at the sky. Exhale. Tuck chin to chest. Let's do at least two more of those, all the way up with the breath and all the way down, keeping the chest quiet, not popping out the front body too much. All the way up and all the way down.

And I heard I have some yogis out there. So we're moving, linking the movement to the breath, just like yoga practice. Go ahead and take your right ear. Right ear. Lift it up to the sky. So this time, we're not crunching down to the shoulder, but rather think of lifting your ear up, like a dog who hears a bag of chips crinkling in the distance. And then come back to center.

Inhale, lift your left ear up to the sky and center. And right, just stretching the sides of our necks-- your traps, perhaps-- and switch. One more round with this. Inhaling and exhaling. Inhale, lift. Exhale, chin parallel to the earth once more.

OK, a little wrist stretch. Go ahead and take your right hand. And as if you were showing a very glamorous ring to the screen, go ahead and flex your wrist like so. And then from underneath, grab and gently pull. Pull in like so.

And then, as if you'd say, give me five to someone, show your palm to the screen from underneath. Reach down and pull back on your fingertips, so stretching the inside of the wrist now. And then we'll take the left hand. Show the ring.

And I have to say, I was once with someone who had-- I said, go ahead. And as if you had a very large championship ring or something, show it to me and then gently pull in. And this person had several championship rings and said something like, well, actually, I have six. So you can imagine, right? The rest of us, we can just imagine. Pull in. And then give me five. Show the screen, palm and pull.

And then this one, go ahead and interlace your fingers. If you've done cat-cow on your yoga mat, this is a little similar. Show the palms to the screen like so. Inhale. Look up. Press the ceiling up. And as you exhale, tuck chin to chest. Round your knuckles toward me. And round your spine.

Do that again. Inhale. Reach up. Look up. Stretch. Exhale. Tuck chin to chest. Round your back. Knuckles press toward the screen. Last one, all the way up, big breath in. All the breath out. Good.

And then take your palms together. So this is the moment where if you have glasses, you might want to remove them. Take your thumb knuckles to your third eye, so the middle of your brow, middle of your forehead. Press there firmly, but gently.

And then with your thumb knuckles, make a circle. Trace a circle at least three times one direction, massaging the center of your forehead. This is really good if you tend to get tension headaches, maybe some eye strain from staring at our devices for too many hours. And then do three times the other direction.

Now take the tips of your thumbs. Guide them into the inner corners of your eyes, so where your eyebrows dip down. Tips of your thumbs go in and underneath the brow bone. Just gently press in and up. And when you get the right spot, you'll know it because your whole face will relax. And then take your two fingers to your temples on either side and massage at least three times firmly on the temples, one, two, three.

And then do your upper jaw. Two fingers, upper jaw, trace a circle, at least three. Any teeth grinders at night? I know. Me too. Me too. And then lower jaw, lower jaw.

And then go to the base of the skull, so where your neck meets the base of your skull. And just back of the neck, let's do three like that. Maybe you need more than three. And then shake it out. Shrug your shoulders back three times up and back. Inhale, up. Exhale. Let them drop. Last one.

OK, how's that feel? So now we're in our bodies. We've just brought our mind down into our body, into the physical experience of the moment. And now I would love to teach you just a very brief meditation. I call this one a one-minute meditation, even though today, with explanation, it will be a little bit longer. It'll be somewhere between-- I don't know-- five to 10 minutes.

And you can do this virtually anytime, anywhere. My only stipulation is that if you are driving a car, please do not close your eyes, OK? That's for your safety. All right, so get into a comfortable, seated position once more. Maybe you place your hands in your lap. We are still in the month of January, so you might ground this meditation with some kind of intention for the year. And I'll explain that a little bit more in a moment.

But when we think about intention, one guiding principle that I like to share, that I like to suggest, is to think about, let's say, for instance, how you want to feel at the end of this webinar. How do you want to feel at the end of this webinar? And maybe a certain word comes to mind, OK? So that's a thought before we begin.

Go ahead and close your eyes. Or you can just lower your gaze to the ground or to your hands. If it makes you too sleepy or sort of mentally checked out to close your eyes, you can just lower your gaze to the floor and begin with another couple of breaths, slowly inhaling and exhaling. And notice what's connected to your chair, your bones, your muscles. Feel even your clothing touching your skin and the temperature of the air in the room.

One small thing I like to do is to take my torso and just ever so gently rock forward and back till I find the spot of greatest ease in the center, so just a nice neutral spine, sitting with integrity. What would it feel to sit with integrity? Crown of your head rising.

And then I'd like you to bring to mind that single word that captures how you'd like to feel at the end of our session. It might be a word you've been thinking about to anchor the year ahead for you to help you find steadiness. And you don't have to think too hard. You don't need to edit. Just whatever the first word that comes to mind might be-- peace, clarity, compassion, confidence.

So go ahead and take a deep breath in. And as you next do that, count one. As you exhale, silently say your word. Inhale silently. Count two. As you exhale, silently repeat your word. And then keep going until you get to 10. Inhale. Three. Silently repeat your word.

When you get to 10, you might begin again at one, or you can let the counting fall away now and just sit with your breath, sitting with the awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose to the present moment nonjudgmentally, just experiencing your breath in your body now.

Take a long, slow breath in and a refreshing breath out. Bow your chin to your chest. And then ever so lightly lift your eyelids open, if you haven't already, and come on back.

OK. So it's a nice feeling. I can't see your reactions, right? I can't hear your responses. But I trust that you're feeling different already, that some of the stress that you might have arrived with has perhaps come down a little bit.

For our final exercise, I'm going to lead you through what I call a mind map. So I love the synergy of a name like Travelers and a mind map. A map is something that you can do. I think of it as a mindfulness practice, very low stakes. And it just sort of grounds your attention toward what is important to you. So I'm going to bring up that visual. And hopefully, all my visuals are working out OK.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Mind Map. A diagram consisting of a square containing the text What do I want? Four circles surround the square, with three containing the text Home, Work, and Health. The fourth circle remains empty. A list titled More Options. Text: Community, Relationship, Family, Activism, Abundance, Rest, Money, Education slash Personal Growth, Self-care, Service, Spirituality, Mindfulness. 

(SPEECH)
So this is what a mind map entails. If you have a piece of paper and a pen, you'll start by just putting a circle or a square in the center with the sentence, with the question, what do I want? And I often do this as a way to ground myself at the start of a new year or around my birthday, actually, just as a way to reconnect. My birthday's in the summer, so that makes for a good space of time. If you're a Capricorn, maybe not as useful to do them back-to-back like that. 

So you start with, what do I want? And then put some big buckets, the big things in your life that you want to focus on, that you would like to direct your attention toward. I suggested a few-- home, work, health.

But there's also this list on the side from which you might pull-- community, relationship or marriage, family, activism, abundance, rest. Maybe you've really been through it. You're very burnt out. And you know you need rest and self-care. And you'd like to put that at the forefront of what matters to you. Education and personal growth-- so you get the idea.

And then start to visualize the ideal scenario for these things. And this is a bit different from goal setting, but it certainly shares commonalities. What would it look like for you to be healthy in your body, in your mind? And then just put a little line off that circle and describe it in just a couple words.

And so you just-- little-- sort of like a web-- work. Maybe you have a particular goal to finish a new project, or to launch a new initiative or team, or to find a mentor, or to create a mentorship program, something like that, and just a little-- a few lines and a few descriptions, just anchoring yourself and your mind around what matters to you.

And so I'll just give you another minute with this. This is something that you can take with you. I'm not assigning homework. But it is something that you can do and keep with you and revisit from time to time because it is very powerful to integrate what we want to see in the world, what we want to create in the world.

I have to laugh because many of you are in the field of insurance. And you're probably quite adept at visualizing the worst-case scenario. I'm not in the field of insurance. And I guarantee I am among the best at visualizing the worst-case scenario. It's kind of human nature. We have a negativity bias throughout evolution. It kept us safe. If there was a bear in the woods over there, we learned not to go over there. And that has a time and a place, to know the risks of something.

But also, we want to spend time visualizing, perhaps, the best-case scenario, the highest good. What would it look like if I had perfect health. And perfect's an improbable word. But if I had good health, what would it look like for me to position personal growth or my education, my personal development, at the forefront of what I think about?

And so just spend another minute or so with that. We're going to transition the conversation back to Jessica. I'm going to take your questions. And I'm just very happy to be with you and hope that some of that was helpful and practical and that you can take these new tools and use them wherever you go from here.

(DESCRIPTION)
Jessica reappears on the call in a split screen. 

(SPEECH)
JESSICA KEARNEY: Rebecca, that was fantastic. Thank you so much for walking us through movement, meditation and the mind map, where we are cultivating our best intentions and best-case scenarios, as you mentioned. 

I'd love just to pick up on some of what you said with the play on insurance, that mindfulness is a form of insurance for your mind. I think that's a great way for our audience to think about it. And to create rituals and moments for you to live your life rather than your life living you, I think that's such a nice way of putting it. And I know as everyone is looking at their mind map and writing down their final thoughts, we're going to transition into some conversation, as you mentioned, and start to unpack.

I think that was-- when we first started having this conversation of planning the session, we came with all these ideas. And very rightly, I think you said, we need to start and set the tone and bring the feeling and create a feeling. And I'm so glad you guided us in that direction because that was a really wonderful way to start.

I do want to kick off just with an audience polling question. I know there's been a lot of engagement so far already in this session. I'm curious how people manage stress in their lives. We're talking about stress as the underlying for busy professionals in this program.

So we just popped up on screen, how do you manage stress in your life? Pick the one that you go the most to. And obviously, we're showing some different ways. But we've got things like exercise, work, counseling, medication, alcohol, organizing and cleaning. That was one on some of our past programs that we've heard a few times.

And let's go ahead and share the results. It looks like a lot of people lean towards exercising. And actually, the second runner-up is organizing and cleaning, with meditation and spirituality coming in third. Rebecca, I don't know if you can see these results, if you have any reaction to what you're seeing. Is this common in terms of what you see as people are starting to learn alternate methods, I guess, to deal with stress?

REBECCA PACHECO: I can see. I really like this function. I have to tell you, I wasn't allowed to vote. So I'm a little jealous. I love the participation. Yeah, I don't know. Some of you who are really good at organizing, maybe you could call me sometime. I could use your help. That was my first thought.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Oh, that's great. And thank you all for sharing that with us. And I guess just to kick off, Rebecca, so some of our viewers on this program may know that back in November, we had a guest on our program who had been involved in a high-speed train derailment, just an awful story, nearly ended her life. And she came on. And she really shared all the excruciating details of how she got through it.

And she was explaining how she'd reached her lowest point. She was withdrawing from pain medication. She had all these prescriptions when something clicked in her that said, you know what? I just need to try something new. I need to try something different. And so she said, that's when I started looking at other therapies, like meditation, breathing and yoga. And I was always a huge skeptic. To me, yoga was for people who didn't want to sweat when they exercised.

But then she went on to say that doing meditation and yoga really helped her regain a sense of control and agency over her own body. And she said, it was the one thing that I could do that didn't require a prescription. And that was not a plant. That was just a few months ago. And we were like, this is the perfect transition to this session that we're hosting in the new year.

So I'm wondering, you've worked with so many different folks, so many different professionals, professional athletes, business people. Can you react to her experience and maybe share, when people really get on board with these practices, is there an ah-ha moment? What makes it click for them? How do people recognize that this is a tool that they can use?

REBECCA PACHECO: Well, I would love to see that, if you might be willing to share. And I love that synergy for people you've been gathering now for years on Wednesdays with these conversations. So I love that for everyone here. This person seems to have gone from being heavily medicated to being heavily meditated. And that's always-- that’s an exciting transition, not that-- obviously, medication is also an important piece.

But I think it speaks to that old adage. Like, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I like to say of meditation-- and it comes early in my book-- which is that it always helps. It never hurts. It costs nothing, or it can cost nothing, virtually. And it can change everything.

And we can quibble with words like sometimes, always, never, right? But it never hurts. It always helps. It costs nothing. And it can change everything. And I think particularly, when we are in a period of our lives, either individually or as a collective, that feels really painful, like this person of whom you speak, the cultural tendency is to escape.

And I sympathize with that. I empathize with that. And to some degree, that has its place. We all know what it's like. We've had a terrible day. And we just want to lose ourselves in some binge-worthy Netflix show or something.

But that has a limit. And it has diminishing returns. And I think what this person found was that they couldn't escape. They couldn't escape the pain in their body, the experience of their body. There was no way out. And so they had to learn to use their tools. And I love that she spoke of agency and autonomy and sort of reclaiming her body and her mind in order to be in the present moment with a little bit more kindness toward herself, with a little bit more steadiness.

And the thing about pain is that it can be so diffuse. And I'm speaking, yes, of physical pain, but emotional pain, too. Grief certainly comes at us at weird times, unpredictable times. It can seep into every corner of life.

And so what happens when you have a meditation and/or yoga practice, some form of mindfulness, whatever it may be for you-- it could be birding, truly. What happens is you find a way to be in the moment more fully. You've stopped escaping. And we can all do one breath. Even in the most excruciating pain of our lives-- physical, mental, emotional-- we can probably do this breath.

So it sounds like that's what that person found and talked about. And wow, what a great experience for you to have that lived experience and then some practice coming on the heels of that with what we just did.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Yes, exactly, bringing it to life. Thank you for sharing that. And I guess tying into that and maybe some of the feelings that you might have had about it before, what are some common myths that you encounter about mindfulness and meditation? Can you break some of those down for us?

REBECCA PACHECO: How long do you have? We don't have too much time. And that is a chapter in Still Life, in my book. But the No. 1, No. 1, top of the list is that when you have a thought or when you start thinking, when I start planning dinner, or Jessica starts thinking about what she wants to do for a workout after work or whatever, that we've screwed it up.

That when we begin to think, we've lost the meditation. We've goofed it up. We're failures. We're meditation flunkies. The meditation police are going to come and haul us away. We're no good.

And the reality is that the beginning again is the meditation. As soon as your mind wanders away and starts meal planning-- I mean, look, I'm not a scientist, but maybe like 85% of meditation is spent on meal planning, I would guess.

I mean, I'm kidding. But it's just natural for the mind to get back in its to-do list and to start thinking about dinner, to start formulating the email, to relitigate an argument from many years ago that we've already had. It's all very normal, justified. It's just the mind doing its thing. And the more we practice, the better we get at coming back.

So we haven't goofed it up. And we're not failures. It's just acquainting ourselves with our mind and gently coming back again and again so that what you create is space between your thoughts. You're not hijacked by every little emotion, feeling, thought. You have a steady center.

Jon Kabat-Zinn says, it's the awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose to the present moment nonjudgmentally. That doesn't mean you won't have judgments. You will. But it's a skillfulness around paying attention again and again. No matter how caught up in thought or virtual reality we get, we come back to that lived, breathing experience in the body, in the moment, with ourselves, with the person in front of us, with our colleagues.

JESSICA KEARNEY: And that steadiness, I think that's something that many of us are all striving toward as we rush through our day and our ups and our downs, that steadiness. And I think even in the workplace, we often talk a lot about imposter syndrome and second guessing ourselves and feeling like we're not good enough to have a seat at the table, right?

And I think tagging on to what you just said-- you wrote in your book-- now imagine how liberating it is to have a place in your life where you cannot do it wrong. And I remember when I read that, that really hit me as something so precious.

Like, that's the word that kind of came to mind because we are all trying to be efficient and perform and be the best version of ourselves that we can. But to have a place where you can't do it wrong, you're just creating space for yourself, I think, is something really valuable for us all to take away.

REBECCA PACHECO: Yeah. And it's this deep paradox, too. It's a place where you can't do it wrong, where you are not focused on performance or measuring or quantifying your steps or sending how many messages in your inbox and all of this. Meditation is not concerned with that. But this-- there's this paradox because, inevitably, it helps you to do a lot of things better.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Yeah.

REBECCA PACHECO: And it's funny. I wish I didn't have such firsthand experience with imposter syndrome, but I do. But I've tried to think about it in a slightly more nuanced way lately, even since writing the book, because it does feel highly gendered in terms of who we think should have imposter syndrome, or even the suggestion, I think, works on us in a certain way.

So it's very valuable to be in meditation, for instance, and consider that and get a little space from it. And to your point, to have a place in our lives where we can't do it wrong-- when you hear that sentence-- I mean, when you said it-- I wrote it, but I don't remember things that I write, really.

But as soon as you said it, my nervous system relaxed. So it's really noticing how we feel in the moment. Meditation is not about blocking out feelings or emotions, but experiencing them from a more centered place, maybe seeing the doubts, the imposter syndrome, and doing it anyway, having that steady center.

JESSICA KEARNEY: And you just said meditation and mindfulness is not about performance. It's not competitive, obviously. But these are tools that, I would think, could help us perform better at work. Can you comment on that?

REBECCA PACHECO: They certainly do because, look, I mean, how many of us-- when you make a mistake at work, for instance, chances are it was in a state of being where you were exhausted, maybe hungry, distracted. When we make decisions that we later regret, it's usually because they happened in a state of stress. And obviously, there's good stress and bad stress. But to be able to see the moment clearly and to respond rather than react is just a baseline best practice.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Yeah.

REBECCA PACHECO: So as I said, there is this deep irony. There's this paradox with meditation, where it's not about performance, but it inevitably improves our performance in a great many things because what you pay attention to improves. If you want to perform at your highest level, you have to pay attention-- and good, undistracted attention-- at what matters.

JESSICA KEARNEY: So I'm going to pick up on what you just said-- perform at your highest level. You don't have to name any names, but I would love to hear-- I mentioned at the beginning in your intro, NBA players, Olympians, world-class ballerinas, all these different, I guess, top performers, top athletes that you've worked with. What is someone at that level looking to gain from this? And have you had any surprises working with those world-class athletes?

REBECCA PACHECO: I mean, performing at that highest level, it's not so different from-- I've also worked with whole fire departments, and during the COVID-19 crisis, frontline first responders. So it's not all that different. But I will say, for instance, the owners and the front office might engage me because they're not sleeping, right?

And the coaches and the staff, it's because of stress. And it's because maybe they're former athletes, and now their bodies are breaking down. And so they're looking for some longevity. They're looking for some stress reduction. The players are looking for that mental edge. They might be looking for a little bit of injury prevention, keeping their mind and body healthier longer term.

And I would say that one commonality is that what brings people to meditation is very often not what keeps them there. And yoga as well. People come thinking they want one thing. They want to get better at 3-pointers or something.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Yeah.

REBECCA PACHECO: But what keeps people practicing is something much more holistic and sort of all-encompassing. But it often is one very pragmatic skill or intention that an athlete would seek out, or ballerina. Ballerina is a little different because-- but it is-- the emphasis is performance. But I think really what matters is what they find once they begin to practice and how they begin to inhabit their own mind.

And I love that now athletes talk about it more. I'm thinking of Simone Biles, for instance. I'm thinking of Naomi Osaka. I'm thinking of Serena Williams, LeBron James, who famously has-- he sits on the sideline, on the bench, occasionally will meditate in this giant arena. And yeah, I have worked with the Cavaliers. I've never worked with LeBron, I have to say. And so I share a few names in the book. But mostly, I let people preserve their anonymity.

And I will say that working with teams is really fun. I mean, I think many people logging on are part of a team, certainly the public policy team. You were my first introduction to Travelers. And teams tend to have a very good sense of humor. There's like a camaraderie. And so they can even be competitive with the yoga or the meditation. But it's for a good purpose. So that's really enjoyable.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Question coming in from our audience member Jenny. She wants to know, how often should I meditate and for how long?

REBECCA PACHECO: Well, it's up to you, Jenny. Something is better than nothing. And I'll just tell you quickly an anecdote. I had tried for many years to be a daily meditator and kept failing, shall we say. And then one New Year's-- and this was now more than a decade ago-- I took all parameters off. So any of the criteria that Jenny is looking for from me right now, I removed.

It didn't have to be a certain amount of time. It didn't have to take place in a certain spot. It didn't have to happen at the same time of day. I just had to do it. The only stipulation was I had to do it. So if it was me, in my pajamas, sprinting out of my apartment, racing to my vehicle to move it before street cleaning, before I got a parking ticket, and then I repark the car, and sit in the parked car, and I meditated for three minutes, that counted. And from there, I built up.

So I would say start with a reasonable commitment for you. Today, everyone learned a one-minute meditation. Everybody can do one minute. But maybe you're going to start with three to five. And you're going to aim for three to five minutes a day, or three to five minutes a day, three times a week. You know your home. You know what's best.

I know a lot of folks had sleep questions. You're having trouble sleeping, and you find that meditation helps. It will help you no matter what time of day you do it. But maybe it's your new sort of sleep routine, and you do it before bed, right? So I would say something is better than nothing. And pick a reasonable commitment, maybe that stretches you a tiny bit, and just stay consistent.

JESSICA KEARNEY: And I love that you said you can even do it in your car.

REBECCA PACHECO: Yes.

JESSICA KEARNEY: So really making it accessible at multiple times of day. I'm going to keep going with audience questions. There's a question coming in from Lorraine. Are there any tips you can give to recover from burnout?

REBECCA PACHECO: Well, burnout is its own thing. And I'm not necessarily an expert on burnout. But it does strike me as being almost the opposite of mindfulness. And I don't say that with any judgment, because I have experienced burnout. But it seems like to get into a state of burnout, you're operating in a way where something in your mind is overriding the signals that your body is giving you that you've had enough. And you override and override and override for a significant amount of time until there's just a fracture.

So it's not that meditation necessarily can be the cure-all, and all you will need is to meditate, and you could get back to baseline. I think usually, depending on how bad the burnout is, it might take many different modalities-- physical, mental, emotional. It might take some therapy. It might take a change in lifestyle. It really is so case by case.

But I would say that meditation, that slowing down and that basically doing the opposite of what the burnout was, which was probably overriding how you felt, and adding and adding and adding, and not slowing down. So now, when you meditate, when you practice mindfulness, you're pausing. You're noticing how you feel. You're honoring how you feel.

So yeah, and it can be a time also where you sort of channel a voice of your highest good. And this speaks to your question earlier of imposter syndrome or burnout. The voices can get very negative in our heads.

And it's not that we want to get into a screenplay of a happy voice in your head. But what if you sat for a few minutes, and you channeled the voice of a mentor or a teacher who always brought out the best in you, who saw the best in you, someone who knows the other side of your burnout, right? And you channel that voice until you believe it. Channel Beyoncé if you need to until it starts to resolve. But I know that it's a process for everybody.

JESSICA KEARNEY: I like that. And that's so practical, kind of walking through the steps and how you can take that in. I want to build on that just a little bit. So this past summer, the U.S. surgeon general highlighted the seriousness of stress for parents and caregivers. There was a lot of headlines around that.

And I have to say, quick shoutout to the members of Travelers Working Parents and Caregivers Diversity Network. I know some of you are joining today, so thanks for joining us. Can you talk a little bit about your experience as a new mother-- or you talk about your experience as a new mother in the book. And that was something that I really related to. Can you give some advice to working parents and caregivers dealing with the stress that they face?

REBECCA PACHECO: Yeah. So that was U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on his way out. And I have so much admiration for him. We actually share an editor. So the same person who edited my books edits his. And so I have fangirled over him for quite a while and just was so happy that-- just admire the way he comes at his work. And that messaging was so important.

Meditation is no substitution for responsible public policy. And I think truly-- this is maybe not my purview, but childcare is basic infrastructure. And I think that is a really important thing to say and note and feel and be honest about. That is the moment we are living in and the thing that I think we need to work toward.

I had set out to write a book about mindfulness in real life. And boy, did real life step up to see if I meant it. I had a toddler. I was on a book deal with a toddler. And then a global pandemic set in. And so that was really challenging. And the book is not marketed as a mindfulness book for parents.

But there's a lot in there. And I think we can think of meditation as sort of a deposit and withdrawal system. And a little can go a very long way. And so for a while, I was really riding all this great banked mindfulness I'd done over years and years and years so that when I became a new mother, there is only the present moment.

Children-- babies only exist in the present. When they are hungry, there is only hunger. When they are cold, there is only cold. I mean, it's very immediate in that way and very special, right? So I was fine. I could feel how present I was. And then I really kind of bottomed out because I had scrimped for so long. And it is-- parenting can be so intense, especially for those without the resources. And most of us struggle to have the amount of resources that we need to raise our kids.

And I just think that culturally, families are more isolated. There are certainly more higher expectations from social media and what we see of parenting and the judgments that are placed on moms and dads and caregivers of all kinds. And so I do think that any amount of meditation can help.

And also, this sounds wild, but I swear it's true-- kids really enjoy it. Like, if they see you meditating, it does much more for them than hearing you say, calm down, or--

JESSICA KEARNEY: To lead by example. We see that in so many areas of our lives. I know my kids love to do yoga with me as well.

REBECCA PACHECO: To bring it into your home. It can be so small. And I had such a funny moment the other night. I was kind of at my wits end. And I just needed a beat. And so I said, mom's going to meditate. My husband was doing bedtime. He was reading.

And my daughter came down. And I was sitting silently. And I could feel her arrive. And I let her sit with me for a minute. But she interrupted. I said, yes? And she said, Mom, I know you're meditating, but it's about Harry. And I'm like, Harry Potter? And they had been reading. And she really needed to tell me about Harry Potter.

But you know what? She saw me in meditation. And I responded in a completely different way than I would have seven minutes earlier because-- it's just a silly, silly example. But any amount is helpful. What the kids see of you taking care of yourself, slowing down, is really valuable, actually will get through to them more than many other tactics for teaching a kid to calm down.

So I don't have all the answers, but I know that it's going to take policy. It's going to take collective action, individual action. And so hopefully, some of the skills that we get through mindfulness make the road a little easier, make us see each other as parents in a more compassionate sort of communal manner. And yeah, I was grateful for that. And I'm grateful for the question.

JESSICA KEARNEY: No, it was a nice section to read. I appreciate you sharing that with us. I know we're getting close to the top of the hour. We're getting a lot of questions in about running and yoga. So I just wanted to hit this on the top, too. You, in your book, you refer to yoga as meditation in motion. So I'm wondering if you can talk about the motion piece of it and how maybe that walking, running, yoga fits into this conversation that we're having about meditation and mindfulness?

REBECCA PACHECO: Yeah. Our lives can be very sedentary, and especially with the way that work has been reshaped in recent years. And so sitting and meditation might be hard if you're sitting already so much of the day. And so that might be an opportunity to try walking meditation. It might be to add a little mindfulness to your running.

And that can look a lot of different ways. It might be just a one-minute meditation as you cool down. You stretch a little bit. You sit on a park bench. And you do a minute of meditation. Hopefully, it sort of emerges from people's schedules and from their physical needs.

But it's a way of connecting the mind and the body, right? And some of us need to move around in order to be able to sit still. There is a balance. And so I enjoy working with runners so much.

But I really do think that-- for instance, I've run two marathons. And we're a running family here. And my husband is a running coach. And prior to even meeting him, I was doing this work with Runner's World.

And in order to run any significant distance-- if you're going to run a marathon, you don't run it 26.2 miles at a time. You run it in mile one. And then you run it in mile two. Then you run it in mile three. And there is this meditative rhythm that you sort of sink into, where you are very present. There's just you and your body. And I think that everybody knows how to meditate. They know how to be mindful. They just don't know that they know.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Yeah.

REBECCA PACHECO: And so I think that whatever the activity is that brings you back to that state of being present-- and sometimes we need to trick ourselves. I'm not a surfer, but occasionally I have surfed. And I'm so impressed by the immediacy of having to be fully present when you're surfing.

Obviously, you can't have a phone. And you have to be so aware of the environment, the waves, your safety, other surfers. The only state of mind would be to be wholly engaged in the present moment as it's happening. So wherever you find that is good practice. And use that and keep it going.

JESSICA KEARNEY: I love that. And I think that is a terrific way to end and to think about how we can all cultivate what matters to us. You say clarity, connection and steadiness. Rebecca, thank you so much for joining us. I know we went through a lot of practical discussions and your demonstrations at the beginning. So this will be available to replay. And we will email it around to everyone who registered. So Rebecca, thank you again. I can't thank you enough. This was a great hour. Really appreciate it.

REBECCA PACHECO: Thank you. It was such a pleasure to be with everyone. And I hope that you'll stay in touch, and good luck.

JESSICA KEARNEY: Yeah, we'd love to have you back. Thanks, Rebecca.

REBECCA PACHECO: Thank you.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Take Our Survey. Link in Chat. 

(SPEECH)
JESSICA KEARNEY: All right, I'm going to turn now to a little bit of what we have coming up ahead. And thank you again for tuning in for this session. There is a link in our survey about today's program in the chat. Please let us know what you think. As we always say, we read each and every comment. So please share those with us. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute Risk & Resilience. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. 

(SPEECH)
If you haven't heard, we've got a podcast. Encourage you to check it out, the “Travelers Institute Risk & Resilience” podcast. It's available on Apple, Spotify, Google, wherever you get your podcasts. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Upcoming Webinars: February 5: The Geopolitical Landscape: Key Challenges for the New Administration. February 26: Live from Claim University: Behind the Scenes at Travelers' Flagship Educational Hub. March 19: Power Down to Power Up: The Fascinating Science of Sleep. Register: travelersinstitute.org. 

(SPEECH)
We've also got some great events lined up over the next few weeks.

So turning to our webinar series on February 5, we're going to be joined by Senior Political Scientist and Professor of Policy Analysis at RAND Michael Mazarr to discuss geopolitical risk. This is something we host about two or three times a year, so glad to come back to this topic. We know it's a popular one. 

Then on February 26, we'll take a step into our very own-- Travelers' very own-- Claim University for a behind-the-scenes look at our state-of-the-art training facility. So there'll be a lot there that we'll see on how we train all of our claims adjusters and the advanced technology that we use. So that will be a really fun one.

And then many of you on today's program asked about sleep. We mentioned it a little bit. So join us on March 19. We're going to have Dr. Matthew Walker for a truly fascinating look at why we spend a third of our lives asleep. So what are the implications for your health, your immune system, your memory, your learning and so much more? It's going to be a really fascinating wellness program as a good follow-up to the one that we just had today.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Join us live in 2025. In-Person Events: February 10: Boise, Idaho, Small Business - Big Opportunity. February 11: Spokane, Washington, Leading Your Business in 2025: Navigating the Economy, Public Policy and Cybersecurity. Register: travelersinstitute.org. 

(SPEECH)
And then come join us for lunch in person in a city near you. On February 10, we're going to be live in Boise, Idaho, for Small Business, Big Opportunity, where our speakers are going to talk about challenges and solutions to today's biggest small business problems. So we're going to talk about that. 

And then on February 11, we're going to share an economic update and have a cybersecurity symposium in Spokane, Washington. So if you're in the region, come visit us there as well.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Watch. travelersinstitute.org. Connect. LinkedIn, Joan Kois Woodward. Listen. Wherever you get your pods. 

(SPEECH)
Thank you again to Rebecca. And thanks to you all again for joining us. We will see you soon. Have a great afternoon. 

[LIGHT MUSIC] 

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. travelersinstitute.org.