Mindfulness@Kyndryl June Newsletter

EDITORS NOTE

by Patrick Kozakiewicz

"I got that summertime, summertime sadness

Su-su-summertime, summertime sadness

Got that summertime, summertime sadness

Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh"

This month's theme decided by our mindfulness team is summertime?sadness, and this song by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Ray always comes to my mind.?

In our newsletter this month you?can read two?great blogs by Yolanda and J about sadness and how they have been working through it.

You will find our book recommendation?by Rachel, Podcast(s), especially the one around Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness,?and artwork by one of our Kyndryls significant other to support if you are feeling any summertime sadness.?

Moreover, I want to congratulate Stephanie for being our Mindfulness Champion of the Month. Thank you :)

In June we held presentations for our Leaders in Canada and Strategic Markets, rolled our mindfulness as part of The Kyndryl Way for managers as well as teacher training for the Facilitators, led three groups through "Introducing Mindfulness" with amazing results and did lots more in respect of growing our foundations this year.

I will now finish with my own two cents around the link with sadness?to mindfulness and leave you with a very important study by Deloitte that you can all read and share with your executives later.?

When it comes to being mindful with sadness, it?isn’t about getting rid of the actual emotion or feeling. It's about changing how we engage with sadness, learning to allow the thoughts and feelings to arise, meeting them with curiosity and respect?and with time?letting them go. Through practical exercises of grounding, and using the body to support with managing sadness.?By doing so we can then begin to experience negative thoughts and feelings in a calm, clear, and non-judgmental way. This, in turn, allows us to move through sadness more easily.?The brain research indicates that this shift makes tangible changes to our minds and that training in?mindfulness?enables this shift to occur more easily.?

Thanks for being and feel free to reach out to any of us to speak more about mindfulness and sadness.?

Please don't forget to enroll in our drop-in sessions and courses starting in July :)

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PODCASTS OF THE MONTH

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This month we are focusing on Sadness. What is Sadness???

by Yolanda Hernandez

During the last 2 years there has been a lot of sadness. We feel sad because of losing someone we care about, losing our job,?loosing?our car,?loosing?our home, losing our freedoms to do as we?use?to do. So much sadness that has happened to us and around us.??

With sadness sometimes comes anger, sorrow grief, despair, misery hopelessness, helplessness, resignation, distraught, discouragement and disappointment. We also?have fear?that life cannot continue without that person, that job, or thing. Then there is also joy because we are reminiscing about the time we spent with that person or thing.??

It’s okay to have whatever feelings you have. Embrace the feelings. Let it come. Sadness is not depression. Sadness is a natural part of life, and you can experience it in your?day to day?life. It makes us value our life. It can serve as a reminder of what matters to us, what gives our life meaning. Once we allow ourselves to feel sadness in a healthy and safe capacity. This makes us feel more grounded, more ourselves and even more resilient.??

One the things to do for sadness that helps is to acknowledge the sadness. Don’t lock it away in your mind. Open the mind and acknowledge the hurt, the pain and any feelings that?associates?with it. If you feel like crying, cry. Let your feelings come out. It is good to share how you feel with loved ones or friends.??

Grab you something you can write on. Write down what happened, how you feel and just let it flow out of you. Write down your feelings. You have that human right to feel what you feel. You are a human being. You feel, you cry, you hurt, and you live. Just let the feelings come out in your writing. It’s okay to feel sad. It’s okay to get angry. It’s okay to feel any feeling you have.?

Mindfulness can help us in this time of your life. You can ask yourself: how does sadness feel in my body? This will make it less of an abstract concept or mental event. It will be more of?a all?body and mind experience. Where is sadness more noticeable in the body? In the head, face, heart; maybe it feels like a weight on your shoulders, or pain in your belly. Then try to?breath?into that location, touch it warmly with your hands if you can or pay attention to how it feels. No need to make the feelings go away. Let it be there moment by moment and feel what you feel. It is not a feeling you want but, it is what you have. Experience it and then when you are ready, let it go. It will come back at times so don’t stop it from coming. Experience it again and then release it. It is when you don’t allow yourself to experience the feelings that it can consume you all at once.??

Sadness can engulf your whole body but, when you practice mindfulness then you will know how to experience it in your everyday life. This way it will not cripple your whole being. Sadness will help us see the value of what was lost. It reminds us why we care. So, embrace sadness. Don’t run away from it and it will free you when it shows up again.

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MINDFULNESS CHAMPION OF THE MONTH

Stephanie Maguire?

Stephanie has been supporting the?Mindfulness@Kyndryl?strategic imperative since its beginning. Her presence, insights and strategic thinking have been shaping the community and program in profound ways. From her thoughts around 30,60,90-day planning, to her support in transferring over to our new tool suit, to her learning and teaching mindfulness with/to?Kyndryls. Thank you, Stephanie, for being and doing what you do. Your kindness, presence and relational abilities are well appreciated.

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BOOK OF THE MONTH

Recommended by Rachel Formella

Two beloved friends, Big Panda and Tiny Dragon journey through the seasons of the year together. On their way into the wild they often find themselves lost, and while not knowing where they are, they discover many beautiful sights they'd never have found if they'd gone the right way. Together they explore the thoughts and emotions, hardships and happiness that connect us all. In nature they learn how to live in the moment, how to be at peace with uncertainty, and how to find the strength to overcome life's obstacles, together.???

Writer and artist James Norbury began illustrating the adventures of Big Panda and Tiny Dragon, inspired by Buddhist philosophy and spirituality, to share the ideas that have helped him through his most difficult times, and he hopes they can help you too.??

For me this book is great daily companion. It shows how to be more mindful of our surroundings and how we can deal with difficulties. It also shows the power of a cup of tea as “Grandpa Dragon used to say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a cup of tea”.?

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MINDFUL ART OF THE MONTH

Poem by a Forgotten Tea

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Mindfulness and?neuroplasticity what they have in common???

by J

Example of how mindfulness and science of neuroplasticyty can go hand to hand and help to cope with the feeling of sadness.

The theme of this month's Newsletter is Sadness. Feeling sadness is so common nowadays that we can get used to it. First, we had to deal with COVID where thousands of people lost their lives and our whole world has changed. Most of us were forced to deal with social distance and somehow a feeling of loneliness and sadness. Now there is war going on in Ukraine where millions of people had to leave their homes and escape. So, when we look around, we might get the feeling that we are living in a very hectic and sad reality.?When I look at myself and my life experience, for many years I was living in such a belief that the world is a dangerous and sad place. That perception of reality was so intense that I barely could cope with it. I was trying to do many things just to feel a little better. I have tried many things starting from reading some motivation books or watching motivation speakers on YouTube. I have tried Qi Gong practice, meditation and even started to study ancient philosophy.?All of what I was doing was helping me a lot but somehow, deep in my feelings I just could not get relief.?

Sometimes I felt better, but eventually I got the impression that I was coming back to the same place I had started.?I did many years of my own psychotherapy in different psychotherapeutically approaches, trying to mentally process my emotions but still I could not get true relief. Some time ago, I discovered that there are different types of sadness. And that kind of awareness was a GAME CHANGER for me and gave me a chance to really deal with the different feelings including feelings of sadness. One day during some workshop, I heard about the Somatic Experiencing (SOMATIC EXPERIENCE (SE)) method discovered by Dr. Peter Levin). A SE practitioner was giving a lecture on the subject of how to deal with traumatic emotions stored in our bodies. I would like to share with you what I have remembered from that meeting. Basically, there are two types of sadness.??

There is sadness that might be related to the loss of someone whom we love or if we heard really bad news.?The other type of sadness is related to a sense of instant sadness, grief or just feeling hopelessness.?In my case, during my "mental" work – for example psychotherapy, reading books or listening to podcasts, I was able mentally, to start to process the first type of sadness. But this type of work did not help me to deal with the other type of sadness.??

So, what is this "other" type of sadness? And how to deal with it? This is more physiological sadness stored in our body, that comes out as defense reaction of our nervous system. It is there because sometime in the past, during our early childhood, we could not get what we really needed and now that we are adults, we still cannot get it out. How and when can it happen? For example, in a situation where a young child that needs to get love and attention or just is hungry and suffers or does not get any response and is ignored by its parents can be traumatized. There are many emotions associated with that state e.g. anger or sadness. In such cases it might happen that there is not enough safety and connection with the parents and that might be causing activation of defense mechanism of our autonomous nervous systems (autonomous means that we do not have any conscious control over it).??

For adults, such a defense mechanism would be: a) reaction to fight or b) to get out of such situation. For a small child that is not yet capable of such reactions, the only option is to go to the shutdown state of the automatic nervous system. In other words, when the child is sad and hurt and cannot release emotions of anger and sadness, there is a shutdown nervous system response and it can no longer be able to express its healthy emotions. Emotions become stuck in the body. A child's life force is literally blocked. If those emotions are not released for a long period of time, it can cause trauma or emotional neglect. That emotional neglect is stored in the body and can be released using Somatic Experience therapy that is more focused on releasing trauma from the body than just mentally processing it. Based on my experience it was a very effective method for me and brought me a huge sense of relief and closure. Now I am combining my Somatic Experiencing practice with mindfulness. Basically, when feeling an emotion of sadness, I am trying to search in my body for the place where I feel the tension. In that part, mindfulness is really helpful in connecting me with my body and feeling of different emotions e.g., sadness. Then, with simple and fast Somatic Exercises I am facilitating the process of autoregulation of nervous system that is helping me to cope with uneasy emotions. For me, this is a perfect example of how mindfulness and the science of neuroplasticity go hand to hand.

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Enroll in our courses, events and practise sessions

July -?Introducing Mindfulness?

Intro/Taster -?3x 1h sessions with daily home practice spread out over 3 weeks.?More info:?Kyndryl Publisher?or?The University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre?

1. Introducing Mindfulness (Cohort 27) | Steph and Rachel???????Starting 4 Jul 2022 11:30?(CET) / 05:30?(EST)
2. Introducing Mindfulness (Cohort 22) | Nikola & Patrick?????????Starting?13 Jul 2022 14:00?(CET) / 08:00 (EST)
3. Introducing Mindfulness (Cohort 25) | Katia & Vijay???????????Starting?13 Jul 2022 16:30?(CET) / 10:00 (EST)
4. Introducing Mindfulness (Cohort 23) | Andrea & Patrick????????Starting?14 Jul 2022 10:00?(CET) / 04:00 (EST)
5. Introducing Mindfulness (Cohort 26) | Yolanda & KP Singh??????Starting?15 Jul 2022 12:30?(CET) / 06:30?(EST)

July - Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to?Finding Peace in a Frantic World

Best of both courses. 8x 1.5h sessions with daily home practice and an optional 5h day of practice spread out over 9 weeks.?More info:?Kyndryl Publisher?or?The University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre

1. Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World (Cohort 7) | Martin & Patrick?????????????????????????Starting?14?Jul 2022 16:00?(CET) / 10:00?(EST)
2. Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World (Cohort 8) | Naz, Jan & Vijay?????????????????????????Starting?15 Jul 2022 17:00 (CET) / 11:00?(EST)
3. Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World (Cohort 9) | Leon & Patrick??????????????????????????Starting?15 Jul 2022 13:00 (CET) / 07:00?(EST)
4. Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World (Cohort 9) | Martin?& Kaori??????????????????????????Starting 1?August 2022 14:00 (CET) / 06:00?(EST)

July / August - Mindfulness for Life

More depth. 8x?2.15h?sessions with daily home practice and an optional 5h day of practice?spread out over 9 weeks.?More info:?Kyndryl Publisher?or?The University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre

1. Mindfulness for Life (Cohort 1) | Leon & Patrick???????????????Starting?15 Jul 2022 09:30?(CET) / 03:30?(EST)
2. Mindfulness for Life (Cohort 2)?| Martin?& Kaori???????????Starting 1?August 2022 14:00 (CET) / 06:00?(EST)

August/September - Half Day of Practice

The Half Day of Practice is only for those that have attending a Day of Practice before, attended the Finding Peace in a Frantic World course or have written exception from teacher. It lasts 5 hours with an hour break in between.

1. Mindfulness | Half Day of Practice????????????????????Speakers:?Patrick KOZAKIEWICZ, Martin Jane?ek?????????Friday, 25th August 14:00 (CET) / 08:00 (EST)
2. Mindfulness | Half Day of Practice???????????????????Speakers:?Jan Baker, VIJAY SOMANNAVAR, Naz Sariyildiz??Friday, 26th August 15:00 (CET) / 10:00 (EST)
3. Mindfulness | Half Day of Practice????????????????????Speakers:?Patrick KOZAKIEWICZ, Leon Maciocia??????????Friday, 2 Sep 08:00 (CET) / 02:00 (EST)
4. Mindfulness | Half Day of Practice????????????????????Speakers:?Patrick KOZAKIEWICZ, Leon Maciocia??????????Friday, 2 Sep 14:00 (CET) / 08:00 (EST)