MediMindful Moment: Meet Dr. Romie Mushtaq

In this episode of Cloud9 Online’s MediMindful Moments Podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Dr. Romie Mushtaq, MD, ABIHM, Chief Wellness Officer at Evolution Hospitality, and the Founder of BrainSHIFT Protocol. Dr. Romie talks about utilizing mindfulness in the workplace and how the MediMind App has been helpful in training employees in the workforce.

Listen HERE!

Episode Highlights: 

●      Judith introduces Dr. Romie Mushtaq. (00:38)

●      Romie shares that she’s a traditionally trained neurologist and found her path to mindfulness 10 years ago when her stress manifested as an illness and she had life-saving surgery. (1:08)

●      Romie mentions that she’s the founder of the BrainSHIFT Protocol, and mindfulness is a core part of what they do for corporations and global associations. (1:51)

●      Romie leads the mindful moment exercise. (3:35)

●      Romie shares that skills such as emotional intelligence, being mindful, and emotional regulation were considered soft skills in the workplace. (8:51)

●      Romie mentions that the definition of mindfulness in her workplace wellness programs is seen as a brain training program. (9:32)

●      Romie mentions that you can't manage your business situation until you train your brain, on how to manage it. (11:38)

●      Romie explains what the stress success cycle is all about. (13:59)

●      Romie shares that clinical data shows that it takes four to six weeks for the positive changes to start happening, and change in the structure and the function of the brain. (15:57)

●      Romie mentions that you can change the way your brain cells are functioning by meditating every day. (16:07)

●      Romie shares that guided meditations are helpful, and the MediMind App has a variety of meditations. (16:51)

●      Romie shares that leadership and adaptation are the two aspects that she learned from being a chief wellness officer. (19:28)

●      Romie mentions that bringing in an app is helpful as a tool, but it takes leaders to help implement that. (21:40)

●      Romie explains the 21-day study that they do at Evolution Hospitality. (22:14)

●      Romie thinks that what mindfulness has taught us is self-awareness. (28:06)

●      Romie mentions that they have a group of 55 technology executives that are finishing up her brain shift protocol, and they use the MediMind app and are doing well. (31:37)

Key Quotes:

●      “I went on a journey around the world to learn about mindfulness and integrative medicine. I came back, became certified and now I'm a woman on a mission to transform the brain and mental health in the workplace.” - Dr. Romie Mushtaq

●      “Soft skills are actually essential for leaders and for a workforce to feel engaged, happy, and productive in the workplace. And mindfulness is a core component to creating a happy workplace.” - Dr. Romie Mushtaq

●      “Mindfulness is that brain training, to say, Hey, I don't want my brain to be hijacked by stress and negativity. I want to be able to be focused, and now be able to control my emotions. And that's why mindfulness is so important in the workplace.” - Dr. Romie Mushtaq

●      “When we meditate, something that’s known as the relaxation responses elicited in that airport traffic control center and within about five minutes, boom! That stress response is turned off, your airport traffic control center of the brain is no longer hijacked.” - Dr. Romie Mushtaq

 Resources Mentioned:

●      Judith Dreyer

●      Jeff Nelder LinkedIn

●      Henry Edinger LinkedIn

●      Cloud9 Online

●      MediMind App

●      Dr. Romie Mushtaq LinkedIn

●      Dr, Romie

●      Evolution Hospitality

Mindfulness and Negative Self-Talk: What Are We Thinking?

by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN

Several studies use a mindful self-care and resiliency (MSCR) program to evaluate mindful practices' effectiveness and look at negative self-talk among health care professionals. Burnout and compassion fatigue are real issues in our medical professions, especially during this pandemic time. At an acute care hospital in Australia, researchers reported, "… participants gained more awareness of their thought patterns in stressful situations, thus providing them with the ability to circumvent rising negative self-talk and consciously adopt a more positive perspective on the situation."

Alison Ledgerwood, a social psychologist and TED talk speaker conducted a study at the University of California to evaluate which thoughts are stronger: positive or negative ones. She used the concept of half-empty or half-full in her experiment. She discovered that it's harder to shift from bad to good with our thoughts. Doing so requires disciplined effort due to what is known as our negativity bias.

How many thoughts do we experience per day? Dr. Poppenk, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience at Queen's University, and his team of researchers discovered a brain-based marker for new thoughts. They estimate that the "average person has about 6,200 thoughts per day".  

Self-talk is something we are aware of in our everyday life. Thoughts can be positive or negative, and some days I know I wish mine would just be quiet. Six thousand two hundred thoughts seem incomprehensible.

"Negative self-talk is any inner dialogue you have with yourself that may be limiting your ability to believe in yourself and your abilities and to reach your potential. It is any thought that diminishes your ability to make positive changes in your life or your confidence in yourself to do so. Negative self-talk can not only be stressful, but it can stunt your success." Most of the time, the inner critic's voice is not an accurate marker of your successes, your intelligence, or character.

However, we have thoughts that are here to protect us. For example: don't jump off that bridge. Then there's emotional self-talk that usually has no basis in fact. Once we understand that both will always be there, then we can learn to manage the negative and reframe the ideas into more positive ones. Does it happen overnight? Mindfulness techniques, when applied consistently, do make a difference. 

What can we do to manage these negative thoughts?

1. Pay attention to your thoughts in the present moment. Simply pause.  

2. Meditation practices help you listen a little more deeply. Negative self-talk can be a blanket covering up deeper hurts, negative patterns. It can also be a distraction from what you are feeling. Negative thoughts can be a treasure in that these types of thoughts can highlight an issue, a problem. 

3. Be kind to yourself. Within our 6,200 thoughts, some are negative. Kindness and gentle awareness, compassion for self open the door to acknowledging them and softening them.

4. Change negativity to neutrality:  For example, "I hate" becomes "I find this challenging."  

There are many mindfulness techniques to use.

            Pause and focus on your breath. 

            When a thought arises, acknowledge it and refocus on your breathing.

            Then resume your day.

"Mindfulness is like that—it is the miracle which can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life."

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Studies Show Mindful Eating Helps with Eating Issues

by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN

Mindfulness research and eating studies are relatively new, yet the conclusions are promising, especially for eating disorders such as, “binge eating, emotional eating, and eating in response to external cues… Mindfulness-based approaches may prevent weight gain.” They suggest that mindfulness practices appear to work by increased awareness of the internal cues, not the external ones for eating.

Harvard’s School of Public Health reviewed 69 intervention studies that show that slowing down the pace of a meal, recognizing our feelings of fullness, and exerting greater control over our food choices all improved eating behaviors.

Studies using the MB -EAT, Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training show decreased binge eating, and further trials showed weight loss within this same population. MB-EAT adapted for Diabetes patients showed improvements in glycemic control, significant weight loss, and decreases in choices for trans-fat and sugar consumption.

Today, many folks work from home. Schools offer online learning, where students and their families can choose to stay home. Holidays are here, and many celebrations will be virtual or within the immediate household. Today restaurants offer more take-out services as they were mandated to restrict the capacity for in-house dining. Some of us are not comfortable eating out with the pandemic. Or our frequency of dining out shifted.

Today we face new stresses that affect us locally and globally. While mindful eating studies are happening today, some are looking at the effects of mindless eating.

Mindful eating practices include:

1.     Mealtime can offer a pause from all our daily activities. Consider taking a moment with your next meal to focus on the food.

2.     Enjoy the meal prep; involve all your senses with the preparation. If you do not cook, then stop a second or two and enjoy the aromas of the meal before you.

3.     When we choose the foods we enjoy, there is a delight factor. Use this sense of deliciousness to bring you into the moment.

4.     Take your time. In the nutrition world, we recommend chewing each bite 20 times. It takes about 20 minutes for our brains to signal that we are sated. We forget that digestion begins in our mouth and includes the brain. It takes a bit of practice if you are used to multitasking while eating or tend to gulp down food without paying attention to the eating of it. How many of us watch a show, get caught up on the news during mealtime? This pandemic is an opportunity to press a reset button and adopt mindful awareness with all activities of daily life, including mindful eating.

5.     Food is emotional. We have favorites and dislikes that can evoke an emotional response. Be aware of how you are responding to the food you are eating.

6.     We must eat and drink fluids every day. Our health depends on it. When we eat with gentle awareness, we provide more ease to our digestion.

7.     Lastly, eat with gratitude. Remember, you probably did not grow the food you are eating. Maybe you did not prepare it. Our food industry is complicated. Today many hands grow, harvest, package, deliver, and serve foods to us. Who are they? Folks like you and I who contribute to our food systems. Mindfulness, in general, and with eating, connect us to something greater in the moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh from his book How to Eat:

“When we can slow down and really enjoy our food, our life takes on a much deeper quality. When I eat in this way, not only am I physically nourished, I am also spiritually nourished.”

Today we leave you with a gentle reminder to eat with gentle awareness. Start with one bite.

It’s that simple.

Web-Based Mindfulness Results in Significant Improvement in Depression

by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN

In a recent randomized clinical trial published in JAMA and conducted in primary care and behavioral health clinics at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver, from among “460 participants with residual depressive symptoms, those who received an online version of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in addition to usual care had greater reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms, higher rates of remission, and higher levels of quality of life compared with participants who received usual care only.” People living with residual depressive symptoms face gaps in access to in-person care because of costs and a lack of options available outside of major cities. One of the most important implications of this study was that web-based mindfulness interventions have the potential to scale access to those who face gaps, as well as the overall improvements in outcomes for those being tested.

 In this study, the intervention used was a web-based Mindfulness intervention called Mindful Mood Balance (MMB), based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which combines the best practices of cognitive therapy with the tools of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and according to B Grace Bullock at Mindful.org, is designed, “to teach individuals how to better regulate their emotions. Previous studies have found MBCT to be as effective as antidepressant medication in preventing depressive relapse. To date, however, access to the program has been limited largely to those living in large cities. Mindful Mood Balance (MMB) was created to fill the access gap by delivering MBCT online.”

A Very Short History of Studying Mindfulness in Healthcare

by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN

In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn began a program called Mindfulness-Based Stress -Reduction (MBSR) that combined simple yoga postures with meditation. He sought to offer an alternative approach to pain relief.  There were no studies back then. Today books upon books abound on the subject. In fact, in 2017, “in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, Australian researchers reviewed findings from 45 studies. They concluded that MBSR is associated with lower levels of stress-related hormone cortisol.” These conclusions play a huge role in opening doors to chronic diseases, fatigue, lower work performance, and more. Factor in today’s uncertainties, political, and social unrest, and where does that leave our emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing?

Whether one is under stress or has high blood pressure, dealing with cancer or opioid addiction, programs and studies exist today that measure the results mindfulness bring to our wellbeing. Hospitals, clinics, and private practices are useful settings to conduct investigations, and that is happening all over our country.

Mindfulness research has grown rapidly, and driven a broad wave of adoption. According to the American Mindfulness Research Association, there were 1203 studies performed in 2019 alone. “Aetna, one of the world’s largest health insurers, now has a chief mindfulness officer; mindfulness is taught in grade schools, high schools, and colleges; and now UMass has become the first university whose medical division contains a Division of Mindfulness.” (https://www.mindful.org/the-medicine-of-the-moment/)

Mindfulness research is not only driving adoption, it is showing that these practices create positive changes in the brain due to neuroplasticity. Mindfulness “increases cognitive flexibility, allowing people to see stressful situations from different perspectives. “

Within just a few breaths, mindfulness can take us off autopilot, and return us to the current moment. In those “now” moments when we focus on the in-breath and the out-breath, we change our biochemistry. Although mindfulness is not a cure-all, it supports our body’s rest-and-digest functionality as it gives us the ability to pause and notice our world a bit differently over time.  

The trend in research has been so positive that leading medical institutions now dedicate resources, and even whole divisions to further the study and application of mindfulness towards our wellbeing.

Jon Kabat-Zinn started in a basement, offering classes when mindfulness practices were not understood. Today we have institutions and healthcare professionals across the country, and the world, committed to understanding mindfulness for our society’s overall wellbeing. This is why you can read about a major insurance company with a mindfulness officer, or research studies using the MBSR model into how mindfulness helps humanity for issues as diverse as alleviating anxiety, all the way to improving work performance. Thanks Mr. Kabat-Zinn!

MediMindful Moment: Meet Rich Tyler

In this episode of Cloud9 Online’s MediMindful Moments Podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Richard Tyler, R.Ph, Pharmacist at Westown Pharmacy. Rich talks about his career in the pharmaceutical industry and his experiences working in an independent community pharmacy.

Listen HERE!

Episode Highlights:

●      Judith introduces Richard Tyler. (0:38)

●      What does Rich see in his workplace? (1:03)

●      Rich mentions that he prefers to work in an independent community pharmacy. (1:22)

●      Rich shares that COVID-19 has changed them in many ways as an independent pharmacy. Because they extended their services in the big box stores with their delivery, and their community outreach services have dramatically increased. (1:38)

●      Rich shares that they’re a solid team that has been together for a long time and everybody knows each other personally, and professionally. (2:12)

●      Judith shares that Rich has the wisdom and the experience, for the history of some medications that most of us don't have. (3:28)

●      Rich thinks that pharmacists nowadays are more academic than it was back in 1977. (4:00)

●      Judith mentions that Rich has a great reputation in the community. (4:22)

●      Rich mentions that his first job was in a small retail independent pharmacy. (4:39)

●      Jeff proceeds with the mindful moment exercise. (6:45)

●      How is Rich helping himself to stay mindful when the interactions are changing? (9:33)

●      What is Rich doing to help their staff mindful of the fact that the world's changing around them and they're at steady state for the customers? (9:44)

●      Rich shares that he’s a firm believer of leading by example. (10:05)

●      Henry shares that if somebody’s having anxiety, making them stabilize is one of the most significant aspects, and taking a few deep breaths. (12:17)

●      What are some of Rich’s daily practices, before going into the pharmacy, with the right mindset? (12:42)

●      What role does Rich notice that mind-body connection plays in people's lives these days, whether it's on the team, or in terms of the people coming in? (16:31)

●      Rich mentions that everybody's a little frightened, and when the fear comes to them, they lose their way. (16:53)

●      Rich shares that it’s necessary to recognize who you're dealing with. Because some people are more open to suggestions than others. (19:03)

●      Judith shares that staying true to our way of working, and how we want to be for people is what matters in the long run. (20:33)

●      Judith mentions what she loves about their podcasts and the MediMindful team is that they try to walk their talk, with what they’re doing. (20:47)

●      Based on everything that's happening, does Rich have any tips for everybody? (21:39)

●      Henry shares that if everyone could do a little more introspection, the whole world would be so much better. (22:24)

●      Rich mentions that pharmacies are an accessible part of the healthcare system. (25:35)

●      Jeff mentions that the more time we spend present, the more time we spend awake, the more we appreciate how powerful and fulfilling it is to have that level of compassion without having the ego in it. (27:24)

Key Quotes:

●      “Sometimes you have to grow with the times and stay current. I think we do a pretty good job of telling people, informing people, and keeping people in the loop of what has to happen and what's going to occur for them.” - Richard Tyler

●      “We're all humans. If I have a bad day and I bring it to the pharmacy, and I spike up in emotional outbursts, then everybody goes downhill quick and spirals down. So you have to recognize that they're looking to you to be the rock, so to speak, and the basis to be mindful, and to be present with the situation that's occurring and move forward with that.”  - Richard Tyler

●      “Not everybody can be athletic, yoga wise. But if you can just bring your breath, your focus to the center, then you're in a good place right there.”  - Richard Tyler

●      “You guys are all involved in the mindfulness, and that's what this is about. Just breathing, staying present, knowing we can't change the world but, we can do our best to try and make it a little bit better, every day.” - Richard Tyler 

Resources Mentioned:

●      Judith Dreyer

●      Jeff Nelder LinkedIn

●      Henry Edinger LinkedIn

●      Cloud9 Online

●      MediMind App

●      Richard Tyler Facebook

●      Westown Pharmacy

●      Westown Pharmacy App

MediMindful Moment: Meet Dr. Eric Secor

In this episode of Cloud9 Online’s MediMindful Moments Podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Dr. Eric R. Secor, ND, PhD, LAc, Chief of Integrative Medicine at Hartford Hospital. Dr. Secor shares his knowledge and expertise in integrative medicine and explains the complexity of stress and the benefits of mindfulness. Dr. Secor, a key player within our medical system, on the medical front lines throughout COVID-19's arrival and impact on our medical system, shares his experiences about how mindfulness played and continues to play a role in his practice and approach to his patients and their medical care.

Join us for an engaging conversation experience.  

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1D964TJ33vUl1z6MINzwOK

Episode Highlights:

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares his background and his career in the industry of medicine. (1:12)

●     Dr. Eric Secor mentions that only a few medical programs had Nutrition Lifestyle as a key component of their program. (2:16)

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares that when he joined Hartford, he helped them oversee the transition of their old integrative medicine model into their current model, and look for novel ways to integrate therapies through applications and cloud-based applications. (4:26)

●     Judith mentions that she loves integrative and holistic medicine. (4:53)

●     Judith shares that mindfulness practices provide a refuge from those daily distractions that are fueled by everything going on today. (5:08)

●     Jeff mentions that this episode is dedicated to creating mindful moments together. (5:59)

●     Jeff proceeds with the four questions. (6:10)

●     What are Dr. Eric Secor’s thoughts about the need for more mindful moments? (8:15)

●     Dr. Eric Secor thinks that everybody’s set point is a little bit higher, therefore our threshold for managing stress, anxiety intention, will ebb and flow throughout our workweek and throughout our year. (9:12)

●     Dr. Eric Secor thinks that challenges are coming at us from multiple different angles and locations. In a general sense, the setpoints are higher, the stress is enhanced, and anxiety is enhanced. (10:35)

●     Dr. Eric Secor mentions that heightened stress response is significant to help us react and adapt in the short term. (12:00)

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares the fact that when we’re in a heightened sense of chronic stress, those chronic recurrent conditions can become more active and can become more potent over time, with chronic stress. (13:03)

●     What role does mindfulness play in Dr. Eric Secor’s work environment, with employees, and patients? (13:42)

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares that with COVID-19, their workforce has to be more vigilant about daily temperatures, logins, and all the patients that they see daily, have to be screened, questionnaires have to be done. (14:57)

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares that they have a new resiliency committee, as part of the new wellness initiative at Hartford healthcare, they were starting pre-COVID, and they had their first organizational meeting. (16:20)

●     Dr. Eric Secor mentions that they have deployed Cloud9's MediMind Meditation App. (17:08)

●     Henry mentions that Dr. Eric Secor’s patients are lucky to have him at Hartford healthcare, and his thoughtfulness about patient needs. (19:13)

●     Dr. Eric Secor mentions that 30 years ago, the nurses at Hartford Healthcare began the program from a Reiki perspective which is fundamental meditative mindfulness, and adaptation. (21:27)

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares about their newly opened site located in Westport. (22:34)

●     Dr. Eric Secor thinks that there is a realization that they have to begin to look at the lifestyle wellness, mindfulness options, and provide them a rigorous and reproducible way to provide this to staff and patients. (24:08)

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares a story about his patient who came in with anxiety and palpitations. (25:17)

●     What does Dr. Eric Secor think about pain and mindfulness? (28:58)

●     Dr. Eric Secor mentions that pain management is the number one reference to their practice. (29:06)

●     Dr. Eric Secor shares that with chronic pain, there is a place for recognizing the lack of deep breathing that directly corresponds to elevated blood pressure. (33:01)

●     Dr. Eric Secor mentions that mindfulness lends itself as adjunct care to helping patients to breathe better, improve their circulation, and improve their body temperature. (34:16)

Key Quotes:

●     “When we think about the stress response and the relaxation response, that heightened sense of stress is really about the fight or flight response. So it's nice to have a fight or flight response when we have an acute stressful situation that we have to react to...the caveat to that is that we want that response to go up and we want that response to go down in a proper time frame. When that response continues, it's like we're running away from that bear every single day. ” - Dr. Eric Secor

●     “If we step back a minute and think about the work that we do, anyone that has a job that requires precision and requires extended attention to detail, in a sense, does need to practice mindfulness.” - Dr. Eric Secor

●     “If you're thinking from a large system perspective, if you're not improving the health of your 30,000 employees, it's very difficult to contain your costs and have people be highly effective in very stressful changing situations.” - Dr. Eric Secor

●     “We all know and take for granted that when we breathe very shallowly, our brain gets the signal that we don't have enough oxygen, and the brain likes oxygen because that's what it needs to survive.” - Dr. Eric Secor