Alicia Sparks shares strategies for resilience and mindfulness

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[March 30, 2018]  LINCOLN - At the Ladies’ Night Out, Alicia Sparks spoke on Resiliency for Real Life.

Sparks provides change management consultation services and works in partnership with clients throughout the Memorial Health System to facilitate continuous learning and targeted interventions and to address health systems goals and strategies. She provides Change and Mindfulness classes through the Leadership Development Institute along with teaching Yoga and Meditation classes.

Sparks said we are inspired by the busy lives we lead, but asked, “How can we be mindful?” Her objective was to get everyone to learn how to practice mindfulness and personal resilience by learning what resilience and mindfulness are, how stress affects us, what mindfulness is and how we can achieve it. She wanted participants to learn a practice of mindfulness that works for their own lives.

Sparks said we have many stresses in our lives such as work, kids, spouses, money, and lack of time.

Sparks said resilience comes from the word resilire, which means “to rebound or bounce back.” Resilience is “the ability of an individual to positively adjust to adversity” or “the ability to recover from adversity, uncertainty, or failure of overwhelming changes.” She said resiliency implies that we are bouncing back from something that is not easy.

Sparks asked whether pressure and stress are one and the same. She said being under pressure can cause us to feel stressed. Pressure is usually about external factors and stress has to do with how we take all the external events, internalize them and process them. Stress is a choice we make.

We can become aware of pressure in our lives that turns into stress by becoming aware of how we allow the process to happen and how we are internalizing those events. As Charles Swindoll said, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it.” How we react to stimuli is how we internalize stress.

Sparks said just as cows chew their cud over and over, we repeatedly worry about what has already happened, worry about the past, and ruminate about what is to come. Rumination is thinking over and over and about something which happened and attaching negative emotions to it. To break the cycle, we can tap into our stressors.

Sparks said mindfulness is a tool to help us break the cycle. Mindfulness is not a religion, cultural belief system, or ideology. It is not just about taking deep breaths. Mindfulness is simply “being focused in the present moment” and managing our attention in that moment.

Jon Kabat-Sinn said, “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular day; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Sparks broke down this statement.

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Sparks said when something is on purpose, “we mean to do it,” and 'non-judgmentally' is about “trying to avoid judging our thoughts.”

Many of us judge ourselves, but Sparks said we need to suspend and release judgment that really does not serve us. It is a great tool for resiliency.

Sparks said mindfulness is a tool to help improve wellness along every dimension of the wellness wheel, which includes environmental, intellectual, social, physical, spiritual, occupational, and emotional wellness.

Sparks said the brain has evolved and we rarely need to use the reptilian function today. Modern day humans do not often have to use the fight or flight response. In the fight or flight space, we do not have the ability to be mindful and process what is going on in a rational way. Our emotional brain reacts to stresses and if we stay there, we do not get to rational thought. Our pre-frontal cortex helps us be compassionate with others and ourselves, but also helps us regulate emotion and self-awareness.

Research tells us when we are mindful on a regular basis, we can change how our brain works. The more we are mindful, the more our gray matter in our brains increases. Mindfulness practices can help us bring awareness to the processes of thinking.

Sparks said the intent of mindfulness practice is to create “space” so you can “see your thoughts and emotions with more clarity and without judgment.”

Sparks asked the audience to close their eyes and focus on their body and then on breathing. She had everyone take a “purposeful pause,” which is a few minutes to be mindful and pay attention with intention.

Sparks said there are many ways to make mindfulness a daily practice. Focusing on a cup of coffee and taking a walk are just a couple of ways. The practice helps to create “space” and breathing room in our day and can help us in our interactions with our families and at work. It helps redirect attention to what is important.

Sparks said there are circles of influence and circles of concern. In the circle of influence, we look at what we can change. In the circle of concern are many things we cannot change. We need to look at what is outside the circle of influence and recognize that many worries are things we cannot change, and we should let go of them.

Sparks said when implementing mindfulness, we should consider barriers like time and try to find a natural time it could work. Look for opportunities to carve out even two minutes a day for practicing mindfulness. Figure out when you can benefit from a purposeful pause to give you more peace in your day and consider when you need more time to be mindful.

The ladies went away from this session with many helpful tips for reducing stress and worry.

[Angela Reiners]

 

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