Breathing practices have many benefits when incorporating mindfulness techniques and can help pull the mind away from distractions to increase focus and attention. By oxygenating the body, breathing helps to redirect the mind during stressful or anxious situations. Following the activities listed below, you should be able to balance the mind and body connection.

My guest today is Mary Rondenet. Mary has been swimming with whales and dolphins since 2007 and has had some amazing encounters. Her experiences have helped her to become a more passionate and joyful person. Viewing her experiences from the perspective of being a WhaleBreathing Coach, a Certified Transformational Breath® Facilitator and EnergyTouch® Practitioner, she realizes that being with these magnificent beings has helped her to reconnect to the most important thing in life, her breath.

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Stress is a normal, functional part of life; it serves many purposes. The proverbial “tiger in the room” sort of stress tells us when things need to change. It may also inform us when we need to take a break. But if stress is not managed properly over time, it can cause lasting damage to our bodies and minds.

When most of us consider stress, we think of it as a negative force in our lives—one to be avoided at all costs and managed quickly when it appears. As you might imagine, avoidance is not often the best tool for becoming more adept at managing stress when it does inevitably occur. This is where the subtle differences between stress management and stress reduction begin to show.

My guest today is Matt Plummer. Matt is the creator of Zarvana “a science-based approach to train you to think smarter, work faster, & get better results”. The pursuit of perfection is a bit like wandering on an aimless journey, says Matt. “You keep walking and walking, but you’re not sure that you’re getting any closer to your destination,” he says. Similarly, “a perfectionist is always going to want to keep working on a given assignment. But the end result is rarely satisfying.” So, rather than toil “in search of this amorphous goal of perfection,” he recommends, “creating a checklist” for each task.

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While many people joke about being addicted to smartphones, this addiction is an actual affliction. In the past decade or so, phones have evolved from being tools for communication to an all-in-one digital device, and our entire worlds can now be accessed with just a few taps on the screen. This makes them incredibly useful but also creates a powerful draw that many people find hard to resist. It is important to manage digital literacy in an ever-growing digital world with healthy boundaries.

People who suffer from smartphone addiction often find themselves unable to put the device down. They may also experience anxiety and irritability if they cannot use their phone for an extended period or if their access is restricted. Common signs of smartphone addiction include obsessive checking of phone notifications, losing track of time while using the device, and neglecting other activities or people in favor of time spent on a smartphone.

My guest today is Jose Briones. Jose is a passionate advocate for digital minimalism. By day, he serves as a project manager for four churches in the non-profit sector, dedicating his time to community building. Outside of work, Jose delves into researching innovative strategies to enhance offline living experiences. Through his YouTube channel, he offers insightful reviews of dumbphones and provides practical tips to empower individuals in their journey toward embracing a more offline-centric lifestyle. Jose spends most of his day walking the dog, reading, and like many of us doing work tasks.

In 2018 Jose wrote 'Low Tech Life: A Guide to Mindful Digital Minimalism'. This insightful guide invites you to reassess your relationship with technology and offers practical steps to declutter your digital life. Jose expertly weaves together personal anecdotes, research insights, and actionable strategies, equipping readers with the tools needed to navigate the digital landscape mindfully. He challenges the notion of "more is better," advocating instead for a 'less but better' approach to technology use.

'Low Tech Life' leads you through a transformative journey, starting with an honest assessment of your digital habits. It then helps you to identify what's essential, what's nice to have, and what's merely a time-waster. Briones encourages you to quit digital platforms that don't serve your well-being and happiness, offering practical advice on how to implement digital 'time zones' in your daily life for a more balanced, productive lifestyle.)

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As seniors around the country find out if they’ve been accepted into their dream colleges, stress builds as decisions loom. The first of May is the deadline for seniors to pick their college and is considered National College Decision Day in the United States.

As competition continues to grow tougher year after year, many families are finding themselves navigating conversations about future plans, broken hearts, and what happens when your student doesn’t get the acceptance letter from their dream school. Rejection isn’t easy, especially when it comes to something as important as college admissions decisions. But if you approach it with empathy and understanding, you can help your student cope better with this difficult situation and move forward toward new opportunities and dreams.

My guest today is Kevin Kovaleski. Kevin is the Associate Vice President for Communications in the Office of the Executive Vice President and University Provost at ASU. He leads the communications team at ASU that designs and executes communications strategies that have contributed to ASU enrolling over 177,000 students per year.

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Everyone’s journey through grief after the loss of a family member to suicide is unique and complex. Until recently, the experiences of sibling suicide loss survivors have been poorly understood. Research shows that individuals who have lost a brother or sister to suicide are at increased risk for complicated grief, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal thoughts. However, many sibling survivors report feeling overlooked by friends and family after a suicide death and do not receive the mental health support that they need.

The loss of one’s twin adds to the complexity healing. When their twin dies, the remaining twin often experiences profound survivors’ guilt. They have problems with other intimate relationships. Birthdays bring on mourning. Those who aren’t twins seem largely unable to appreciate the depth and complexity of twin bereavement, therapists and twins themselves say.

My guest today is Nick Goodwin, a recent graduate from Wheat Ridge High School in May of 2023. He is currently taking a gap year, prior to starting college next fall at CU Boulder. Nick is planning on backpacking through Europe with friends this coming month! Nick is going to be the assistant manager at Applewood Knolls swim and tennis club this summer, and works at a bakery during the winter. Nick’s twin brother, Johnny, passed away February of 2021 by suicide.

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The ups and downs in working with people can have a huge impact on you. Practicing self-care can better equip you to deal with a crisis and the difficulty of aiding someone with a mental health or substance use challenge. Engaging in a self-care routine has been clinically proven to reduce or eliminate anxiety and depression, reduce stress, increase happiness, and more. It can help you adapt to changes, build strong relationships, and recover from setbacks. In a national survey, Americans cited benefits of self-care as: enhanced self-confidence (64%), increased productivity (67%), happiness (71%). From a physical health perspective, self-care also reduces heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Self-care goals can include:

Take care of your physical and psychological health.

1. Manage and reduce stress.
2. Recognize your emotional and spiritual needs.
3. Foster and sustain relationships.
4. Achieve balance in different areas of your life.

My guest today is Dr. Craig Uthe, MD. He is board certified with the American Board of Family Medicine and member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, has been a Sanford physician since 1991. He is the Executive Director of Clinician Professionalism at Sanford Health and Wellbeing Coach for medical students at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. His clinical practice is in the Sanford Sioux Falls Chronic Pain Clinic. Dr. Uthe also serves as medical advisor to the SD Health Professional Assistance Program.

Dr. Uthe explains the need to have an accountability partner in your life and talks about the need to “Never Worry Alone”.

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According to Defense Department data, suicides among active-duty service members increased by more than 40% between 2015 and 2020. The numbers jumped by 15% in 2020 alone are nearly double the rate of the general population in the United States.

A report in 2021 from the Costs of War Project found that an estimated 30,177 active duty military personnel and veterans who have served since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks died by suicide, compared with the 7,057 killed in military operations during the two-decade war against terrorism.

My guests today are Teri and Patrick Caserta, parents of Brandon Caserta who died by suicide in 2018 as an active solider in the US Navy. They created The Brandon Act to allow the men and women who serve in the United States of America’s Armed Forces to get help without retaliation from anyone in their commands and will hold people accountable for their actions, if it is deemed necessary. It will allow them to get counseling for any issues they may have from bullying to sexual/mental/ domestic abuse among many other issues. With “The Brandon Act” in place, they hope to completely eliminate suicides in the Armed Forces.

Learn more about the Brandon Act here: https://thebrandonact.org

You can read the Department of Defense Annual Report on Suicide in the Military here: https://www.dspo.mil/Portals/113/Documents/ARSM_CY22.pdf

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Injury is one of the highest risk factors for depression among youth athletes. An athlete whose identity is strongly tied to their sport is also at higher risk for developing mental health concerns, especially when experiencing injury. They can lose their primary sense of self and the dreams, expectations and benefits that go along with their athletic identity.

Joining me today is Camden Blum, a freshman at Babson College. Throughout his high school career, he endured an abundance of medical issues. He developed a breathing condition that went undiagnosed for a year and a half, until he was sent to National Jewish Hospital in Denver where he was diagnosed with exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction. During the entire process he had 17 different medicines, 17 different doctors, and 15 different procedures. One of the 17 medicines was a pill gabapentin which has a side effect of suicidal thoughts. With his mental health already struggling, receiving that side effect made it even worse. Then a month later he separated his left shoulder in a hockey game necessitating surgery. Fast forward another year he dislocated the same shoulder, needing another surgery, putting him out of the sport he loved, hockey. His mental health took a major toll due to these medical issues and it was extremely hard for him to vocalize it.

 After his second surgery he created The Simple Emotions clothing company to raise awareness for mental health. The clothing allows you to show how you feel without saying a word!  You can buy some great merch at:  https://thesimpleemotions.shop

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