120 What Does Meditation and Stress Management Have To Do With Performance? With Tom Klisiewicz Founder of Smart Health Wellness and Performance, Inc.
Whether you’re a student, leader, musician, athlete, or parent, understanding your mind and body connection enhances performance both in your personal life and at work.
My guest today is Tom Klisiewicz, CPTD, an educator and colleague, who has dedicated his career to teaching youth how to be resilient and perform at their best so that when inevitable downturns happen in life, they’ll have the tools to fall back on.
Resilient Youth
Meditation can boost performance!
We discuss how he got interested in resilience, how he got started in his own life and is now on a mission to help bring the knowledge of mind-body medicine to as many youth as possible so that they can face and thrive through the challenges that life has to offer.
In this episode of the MindBodySpace podcast, Dr. Juna interviews her friend and colleague Tom Klisiewicz about teaching mindfulness and meditation to youth. Listeners will learn how Tom first became interested in meditation, his personal meditation practice, and how mindfulness helps with resilience and performance. We also discuss Tom's new podcast focused on raising resilient kids as well as a large grant Tom recently secured to teach mindfulness in Illinois public schools.
Main Discussion Points:
- How Tom first learned about meditation from studying successful athletes and business leaders (6:00)
- The benefits Tom experienced from having a regular meditation practice (14:38)
- Using performance as a "hook" to get kids interested in meditation (22:24)
- How meditation changed Tom as a parent - helping him become more patient (24:03)
- Overview of a grant Tom secured to train teachers to teach mindfulness practices to 25,000 students in Illinois public schools (26:01)
Host, Dr. Juna is a mom and physician passionate about sharing evidence-based wellness tips and fascinating topics like neuroscience and meditation.
Guest, Tom Klisiewicz is the founder and president of Smart Health & Wellness Performance. He has dedicated his career to teaching youth practices that build resilience, strengthen mental health, and help achieve success. Tom hosts a podcast called "Raising Resilient Kids."
Find out more about Tom HERE: https://www.smarthwp.com/
Listen to Tom’s new podcast Raising Resilient Kids on Spotify or Apple Podcast
Listen to the Tom, Jeannie’s and my conversation: Raising Resilient Kids Juilliard Teacher on how Kids Can Nail Those Auditions Dr Juna Bobby
The following transcript is automated:
juna: [00:00:00] How you doing? It's so good to see
tom: Yeah. Good to see you. So good to see you. Thanks for having me.
juna: Oh, thank you so much for taking the time out to be here.
juna: How, how have you been?
tom: Good.
juna: so, Tom, did you start your new podcast and what is it gonna be called?
tom: So we're still in the planning phases, so we, we've got a few ideas for names and everything like that, but, it's basically gonna be just around, like just focusing on the youth and building resilience in youth. So, that'll be interviewing experts like yourself and other experts, you know, that, have gone through difficult times potentially.
tom: just to kind of spread those messages to, you know, to parents, to teachers, coaches, as well as kids and teens themselves.
juna: So you're gonna be discussing basically what you do every day and what you've dedicated to your career to
tom: Correct.
juna: So we're all very excited to, hear about your podcast coming up and I'm really excited to be a guest on it. you told me that you're gonna be starting it with your sister. Is she in the field of resilience as
tom: So she is, so she actually was in, uh, or actually still is in, Hollywood basically. So she used to work for the Ellen DeGeneres show.
tom: so she's kind of got
juna: That's so cool.
tom: so she's got that expertise. But the, the one thing that we both have in common is we love kids.
tom: We love working with kids and things like that. So she's actually started a YouTube channel that basically is teaching kids kind of some just like little kids, like basic stuff from. Numbers and letters and you know, things to fly and things like that. So both of us got degrees in education.
tom: So that's kind of where we're coming from. it's kind of funny that it comes now full circle and we're gonna be working together to help kids.
juna: Oh my gosh. I love it. I did not know that about your sister, that she was in Hollywood because you're in Illinois.
juna: Right. So she grew up in
tom: She grew up in Illinois. Yep. Yeah. And then moved out there
juna: to give you a little promo here before you start your podcast, what is her name?
tom: Jeannie,
tom: well, Her last name is Statis. I don't know if you'll find her under Staes. Hopefully that's,
juna: how do you say your
juna: last name?
tom: chevi.
juna: Okay. And I thought we were friends, Tom
tom: Well, we're always talking about kids and how to help. We're always talking about the [00:02:00] resilience stuff,
juna: I guess I never said your last
juna: name.
tom: that's all right. Chevi.
juna: Chevi. Okay. That's, that's not
juna: hard.
tom: Yeah, yeah. There you go. You got it.
juna: Tom Chevez and your sister, Jeanie Chevi status. So now she is out of Hollywood or she's still in Hollywood. What does she do at the Ellen Show?
tom: Yeah, so, so the EL show is no longer, so she's not doing that. Basically, you know, she's, kind of trying different things right now and this is the big thing as far as kind of her focus these days is on helping kids too with, with this YouTube channel that she's got, started.
tom: I can, I can send you the link to that.
tom: She published maybe the past three or four weeks, so she's been, you know, building
tom: it pretty much the past few months and
tom: but she loves kids, correct? Yep. Yeah, so it's called Happy you're here
juna: Nice.
tom: That's her YouTube channel.
juna: I love it. Okay, so I'm gonna put, a link to that and of course a link to your website
juna: and then once you get your podcast, we can go back and put a link to your podcast as well. so she's into educating young kids like little, little kids
juna: or
tom: it's funny where she loves working with the little kids. I love more than middle school, high school kids,
juna: Awesome. I love all of
juna: them. Every single bit. Like
juna: from day one. I loved every single moment of raising my kids, obviously I've told you
juna: that before. that's really exciting. And what did she used to do on the Ellen show? did, she used to manage the talent with the kids there because have a couple of, students from Julliard. I'm pretty sure they have been on the Ellen
juna: Show, so I wonder if she was on
tom: So, yeah, so, I think her official name was produced. I mean, she started out basically as the receptionist, um, was
juna: What I love, she has to come on my podcast now. Oh my God. Really? She started just like, 30
juna: Rock When that guy starts as a
juna: tour guide.
tom: if you search some stuff on YouTube from her, you'll see kind of her story of how she got, how she got started on there.
juna: Cool. Tell, give us a little synopsis.
tom: so basically she always wanted to try to win contests for Ellen.
tom: And She never won. They finally brought her out, to try out a contest. and then they really [00:04:00] liked her. So they, again, you could kind of see on YouTube, they kind of offered a job and she got the job and then
tom: when Ellen was in the studio live, she would be giving away prizes to people who were in their homes. And my sister would be the one who would knock on the door, and basically surprise the people with, you know, Ellen on a tv, set live, essentially.
tom: So,
juna: Oh, you mean like those people who would go up to people's steps and like ring the bell?
tom: Exactly that.
tom: Yep.
juna: or something for Oprah. that's so
juna: cool. what a happy job.
tom: know it was, it was pretty cool.
juna: All right. That's really fun. Yes. So, definitely one of my students, harmony j who is a really amazing pianist.
juna: She was one of my students at Julliard and she was definitely on the Ellen Show. So I wonder if your sister met her? 'cause she was there in 2015.
juna: She, I think she was there a bunch of times it looks like.
juna: Yeah. 2014, 2015.
tom: I bet they crossed paths then
juna: I am sure Harmony was like the most incredible student. I have to have her on my podcast one day, but she would get into the most incredibly deep focused mind. Like I've never seen anything like It
juna: It was pretty wild. Yeah. she's like, she's another level. so back to you.
juna: Now that we talk so much about your sister, I don't want you to feel left out. right. So Tom, we met, through the Benson Henry Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and we've both been trained to, teach youth about basically their mind body connection, right. And all of the science behind that.
juna: So tell me how you got into this and, um, what made you so attracted to this field? Because I know before you used to, work at corporations making educational videos.
juna: Right.
juna: So
tom: Yeah. I basically would kind of. Yes,
tom: exactly. Yep. Did a lot of, a lot of corporate training. That's kind of how I started out actually, when I first started learning about all this MINDBODY stuff when I was in high school. 'cause I love studying successful people, seeing what made 'em tick, what were the habits and practices they were doing on a day-today basis.
tom: And certain things kept coming up over and over and over again. And a lot of it was. this [00:06:00] meditation. So as you mentioned, kind of, I'm in the Chicagoland area, so the Bulls were huge on this. Phil Jackson came in and kind of had, you know, Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen and Dennis Rodman meditating and things like that.
tom: so that's kind of how I first got interested, kind of got curious about it
tom: then I. Actually, it was just in general basketball players, you know, I mean, Steve Jobs meditated. I mean, you know, any performers really, if you look at anybody at the peak of their, whatever it is, whether it's business, whether it's sports, almost all of them are doing some type of a mind body kind of focusing on the mental training portion of, what they do.
tom: so that's how I kind of first learned about it. And then I started to kind of dig into, know, all the research and everything and, you know, I mean, there's thousands of studies out there that show the benefits of all this stuff. and then I started to practice it myself and saw, all right, all these benefits from.
tom: Lowering stress to performing better, to being more focused. They were all happening in my own life. And that's kind of when I said, all right, I gotta find a way to, that I can tell everybody I possibly know about this and all the benefits to it. that's when I started to kind of search around.
tom: 'cause when, when I was doing this, you know, it wasn't as accepted as it is today.
tom: So, I mean, it was probably 15, 20 years ago is when I really kind of, kind of started to get into it.
juna: And so you just started like reading and researching on your own.
tom: Reading research I on my
juna: Do you remember like, what was the turning point for example, for me, I found, , John Kaba Zinn's book, and obviously he was, one of the people to really bring, , meditation into the United States culture.
juna: I started listening to John Kain, who, was a big proponent, of meditation, mainly mindfulness.
juna: But he resonated with me because he was a PhD biologist from m i t. That was his training. So the way he talks, I don't know, something about the way he talks touched me in some ways and. It's funny because I gave it to my sister. 'cause I had lost my mother at that time, she was my sister's mother too.
juna: Anyway, so I gave it to my sister, but she did not like his voice. Sorry, John, miss, uh, Dr. John Kazen. she did not [00:08:00] like his voice. For me, it was a lifesaver. And even during the pandemic, He actually had live free meditations like every single day during the pandemic, and I would do it, and I don't know.
juna: He's so comforting. So Was there any particular ones that you're a fan of? Obviously you're a fan of, Dr. Herbert
tom: But yeah. You know, I really, for me, I get distracted when I've guided meditations. I'm much better kind of on my own, focusing on my breath, you know, whether it's breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth, whether it's doing, you know, some of the, the 4, 7, 8 breathing techniques, all of. All of those various breathing techniques, that, that you and I learned at, at the Benson Henry and, um, and so, so, so I wouldn't say there was one person, but how I got to the Benson Henry was once I decided that I wanted to do this for a living and really teach people about this, I kind of looked around and thought, all right, what's the.
tom: Best program out there and in researching it, I really thought that, alright, the one in Benson Henry is because it's so comprehensive, it covers so many different options. You know, from mindfulness to meditation, to visualization and imagery and things like that. And that's really what kind of drew me to it because I found everybody's different and what works for me might not work for you, might not work for somebody else.
tom: So if we could. Have a program that offers, as, you know, over, eight to 12 weeks, whatever it may be, whichever program you're, you're signed up for. you're learning so many different techniques, trying 'em all out and then figuring out which one works best for you and that's the way you can run with it.
tom: So that's what I really like to, and I found myself over time. I will get bored sometimes with the breathing techniques and maybe I'll move to an imagery. And because I have that education through Benson Henry, I have a lot of different tools. when one starts to get boring or, you know, gets distracting.
tom: I can do something different.
juna: That's a great point because, you know, that was one of the things also aside, obviously from the scientific methods that Dr. Benson and his team promoted . So that was something that was so important to me because there's so many people out there who will say, oh, this is the only way to do it, or you have to use this method.
juna: And Dr. [00:10:00] Benson really studied all different people doing different techniques and really described the physiology of the relaxation response, which can be brought on by many different ways. Right. So, yeah, I love that you brought that up because it's not one thing fits all, and it's not one thing fits all at different times in your life.
juna: You know, and, uh, I like you also like to just sit in silence and do a little mantra meditation to myself. So what were the things that you read or listen to,, when you started to, hear about
tom: really, you know, I would, I love kind of reading biographies or autobiographies and that would kind of send me down a rabbit hole, whatever it was. You know, reading about, and learning about, you know, Phil Jackson and the Bulls would be a good example of that.
juna: Phil Jackson taught his team mindfulness
juna: Z and the art of winning Phil Jackson's team leadership. So he won 11 N B A championship rings as a coach. six with the Chicago Bulls and five with the LA Lakers.
tom: And he brought that to LA as well. So he had, you know, Kobe and Shaq meditating, you know, all these people you
juna: Yeah, like you said, Scotty Pipman and Michael Jordan. he talked about no ego. He said he brought in zen meditation, which is a Japanese, Buddhist meditation, and then he also brought in philosophy and it sounds like Native American cosmology as well.
tom: learning kind of through Phil Jackson kind of led me to Different areas and George Mumford is one who was brought in to kind of teach the bulls meditation and mindfulness and things like that. So I kinda learned from him.
tom: I know he is written at least one book that I've read before. So, so those were different things. So again, it wasn't one person, but just kept seeing it over and over and over again.
tom: Um, and it, it led me to think, okay, there's gotta be something to this. If there's all these famous people that are doing it and there's all this science and research behind it, there's gotta be something to it. And that's what really kind of convinced me to try it. And then as soon as I tried it and it started, everything that they said was gonna happen started happening for me.
tom: [00:12:00] That's when I was sold on, you know, the, the relaxation response that, we learned through Benson Henry.
juna: going back to George Mumford, for people who might not know about him, he had a story as he was an aspiring basketball player at UMass and he did study with John Cobain.
tom: That's right. Yep, he did. Yep.
juna: So he was, heroin addict. And then he ended up getting clean, and he enrolled in Dr. John Cain's mindfulness based stress reduction program, I guess back in the nineties. So that's, that's an amazing story in itself.
juna: as you were reading these things, what did you start as your personal, practice? Like you would sit and focus on your breath or what, what did you
tom: Correct. Sit and focus on my breath was, a big one. Um, another one was just prayer. I know Dr. Benson talked about that. Is any kind of repetitive prayer, no matter what type of religion you're in, pretty much all of them have some type of repetitive prayer and that would, that would help to lead, you know, to that relaxation response as well.
tom: So
juna: Of course. And what kind of religion are
juna: you? Okay.
juna: So
tom: S
juna: have a lot
tom: Catholic, the, the Rosary is a big one. That, that, that is kind of a repetitive prayer that Yep,
juna: And so do you have rosary beads?
tom: do. Yep.
juna: It's kinda like those Buddhist beads too. Like that's the same thing
tom: Pro probably, yeah. It's that, that repetition? Yep. Yeah.
juna: I, I always have to explain everything with a neuroscience bent. when you're touching those beads, you're basically using all your feeling senses, You're kind of counting, or maybe you're not counting. Do you count
tom: No, so it's, it's basically just, doing a, a different prayer, whether it's a Hail Mary in our father with, with each of the beads essentially.
juna: Okay, so you're holding it and then you go on to the next bead. And so you feel it in your fingers, feel it in on your somatosensory cortex as you touch these beads. And then you are, doing these mantras or prayers, which when you repeat something, you're basically pulling your attention away from.
juna: Let's see, self-referential thinking or rumination or just kind of, the mind wandering that we do that usually it's not something positive.
tom: You have? Yeah. The worries about the future, the regrets of the past that are always in our [00:14:00] heads. Takes us out of there.
juna: Absolutely. Yeah. Anyway, so you would pray
tom: Yes. Like I said, so it would be prayer, it would be focusing on my breath, just whatever seemed to be the right thing to do. It could be, you know, an imagery, you know, joyful place, imagery, those types of things. Just thinking about a place that brought me joy and all the details around , that would be another one.
tom: So, like I said, I just like to try many different techniques all have seemed to work for me
juna: So anyway, I wanna go back to 15 years ago when you're starting this. How many minutes a day did you do? When did you do it? How did you do it? And how did you feel after you did it? Like what convinced you that this was actually doing something to your
tom: So, yeah, originally when I started out, I was probably about, you know, maybe five, 10 minutes. I would do it once a day and probably towards the end of the day, right before bed, um, but. That , I would start to do, it always just felt a lot more relaxed, especially, you know, stressful day of having young kids and working in the corporate world.
tom: You know, there were always a, a ton of different stresses and I just knew that I felt better. I slept, I was able to , get to sleep easier. I wasn't, you know, my mind wasn't ruminating as I was getting into bed, and then I just kept building from there. And now I'm up to, you know, 20 minutes, once or twice a day is typically what I do.
tom: And I think most people say, oh, that's way too much, but. I think , as well as I do, that you're just so much more focused during the day after you've done that
tom: that it's worth the time, the investment of the time because , you're a lot better and more productive
juna: So now when you, so when you do those once a day ones, which one would you choose? The morning one or the evening.
tom: The morning one, I'm pretty consistent with the morning one, so pretty much every morning I'll work out and then do a 20 minute meditation.
juna: Oh wow. Workout first. That's great. Okay. I think I'd have to meditate. I usually, if I'm gonna meditate and the first thing in the morning, I have to meditate first
juna: or else like Yes. Yes. And you, you probably have to get that physical energy out first before you could sit
juna: still.
juna: I'm the opposite. So you were talking about kids.
juna: How old were your kids when you started [00:16:00] meditating?
tom: I mean, you know, my youngest was probably. Six or eight? I think so. I've got three. Now they're much older. So one's outta college, one's in college, and one's in high school. So
tom: they've got, yeah, much older. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. with
tom: teenagers, you know, you
juna: Yeah.
tom: Yes.
tom: Three years apart. So, my daughter would've been six, my son would've been three. And actually my youngest would've been a baby at that point.
juna: Oh
juna: wow.
tom: yeah. Right.
juna: have benefited the most.
tom: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
juna: So I guess they weren't old enough that I can ask them. Did you notice a difference between before and
juna: after your
tom: Yeah, Yeah, You could probably ask my wife that, but I don't.
juna: Oh yeah. I was gonna say, what does your wife say? Did she say anything about, noticing anything about you?
tom: I would say she definitely, I would say now I am not as, uptight, maybe that's the right word. As I was when, when we were dating. So I think I'm a lot more relaxed as a result of, of the meditation.
juna: been battered by three children.
tom: exactly.
juna: Okay. So that's awesome. But like, what if somebody said, what's the difference between stress management and resiliency training and the science behind all of it? What's the difference between having to know all that versus just going to church or temple or a mosque or whatever your religion is?
juna: I'm not religious myself, so I don't go to any particular place, but if you were to go to those places of worship, why would you need to know the science or why would you need to know any of this stuff that, Dr. Benson researched? Is it different for you after knowing the science, of doing the rosary beads as opposed to before?
tom: I would say yes, because I kind of knew what I needed to do. So, so, you know, you talk, going to church or whatever that is pretty much when you go, or at least when I went to church, it was very easy. To not really listen and be distracted and kind of be, in my head anyway, thinking about, again, worrying about what I had to do that week or [00:18:00] regretting something I did earlier, you know, the, the week before.
tom: I just thought, all right, I need to be there. But now, kind of knowing the science behind, all right, it's, it's being present. It's, you know, just the whole mindfulness piece, you know, being present, whatever it is. Paying attention to what's going on or with the rosary, kind of, you know, kind of focusing on the prayers and, and, and the, and the touching of the beads.
tom: You're more present and focused on that one thing, on being in the moment than beforehand where I was just sitting there kind of daydreaming, which isn't
juna: So before that, you felt like you were there physically and that was enough. But then once you knew the science, you were like, I do need to actually focus on what I'm doing
juna: and be there
juna: sensory wise. That's so interesting. it's the same thing with yoga, right? So many people practice yoga.
juna: I. And they still feel stressed out. They're still like snappy or angry after
juna: yoga class. I used to get mad, in yoga class, like if I didn't love the teacher, you know, like you might not just, I gotta get outta here.
tom: Well, we always used to say like, leaving church was always dangerous because the parking lot was the most dangerous place after church. So you had all these people that went in to be really nice and you know, pray to God and everything. And then you'd get out and you'd have all these angry people trying to get out of a, a church parking lot.
juna: That's so funny. Yeah, it's like yoga class, right? Is it crowded and like nobody moves over? Or in fact, one person scowled at me. I mean, like people scowl at each other if there's no space in yoga class. Unless actually, unless the teacher. Says something like, you know, we're all here, make space for each other.
juna: It really makes a big difference what the teacher says. But yeah, you could do yoga for hours. You could meditate on a cushion for, you know, years and like that old zen fable, you just get up and you're back to where you were because maybe your mind wasn't there. So, For me, also, knowing the science and knowing the steps, like maybe you can go over the little, the steps that Dr.
juna: Penson. Has laid out for [00:20:00] any type of thing you're doing, whether you could even be knitting and making it into, a relaxation response.
tom: You know, the big things that I remember him kind of saying is you've gotta have something that you're focusing on. It could be a breath, it could be a word, it could be an image, whatever. That is that one thing, and that's taking you away from your mind, wandering the worries of, of your life and everything like that.
tom: the other big thing that I, that I. Think is really important that he said that a lot of people don't realize is that you have to have what he referred to as an oh well, attitude towards distracting thoughts that nobody can sit there and focus without their mind wandering for, you know, 5, 10, 20 minutes, whatever that may be.
tom: So what I've seen with people are starting out, they kind of focus on their breath and then they realize, five minutes later, oh my gosh, my mind's been watering, and then they get upset with themselves. Activating the stress response kind of getting down, which is, you know, the exact opposite of what you wanna do.
tom: So what he always said is, just have that, oh well, attitude once you catch your mind wandering. Realize, okay, oh well I noticed that. Allow that thought to flow out of your mind and then go back to focusing on whatever you chose. Again, that breath, the word image. And then he always talked about how you've gotta be doing it for enough time, though.
tom: You know, if you're just doing it for five minutes, once a month, it's not really gonna have that benefit. You've gotta have that consistency, you know? And I always say, Hey, try five minutes a day for 30 days. And I'm pretty sure if you're doing that consistently, You're gonna be, you're kind of gonna be hooked by the end of that 30 days because there's so much, you'll see, you'll feel more relaxed, you'll see so many benefits in your life.
juna: Or even just start with one breath, right? Like the minis that they talk about. The mini meditations. And honestly that's all I try to do. Sometimes, some days I can only do those minis. Right. Just take a few breaths and, bring on that relaxation response.
tom: for sure.
juna: Yeah. I do remember him talking about, the word he uses is nonchalant.
juna: Just be nonchalant. Oh, well
juna: there it goes
juna: again.
tom: Yeah.
juna: not to get caught up in
juna: that.
juna: I wanna talk about your, Emphasis on performance. how does self-care and mind body [00:22:00] medicine? mind body medicine by definition is that our mind influences the health of our body and that our body vice versa, influences the health of our mind because it's all one nervous system.
juna: It's connected. In your case, you've focused a lot on performance. I know you work with youth and, young athletes also. So can you go into detail about how you know mind-body medicine can help people become more confident and even perform better in whatever they're doing.
tom: it really goes back to what we were talking about before, the whole bulls, you know, aspect. That's how I kind of, you know, one of the ways that I kind of learned about it, the fact that they weren't doing it for health reasons. They were doing it because it was making them better at.
tom: Basketball so that they could win all those championships and everything like that.
tom: and I've also found though, and the reason why I try to push kind of the performance piece is because I think every single kid in the world can benefit from this stuff,
juna: 1000%.
juna: Every kid.
juna: Every parent. Yep.
tom: Yeah. But every human. Exactly. especially with kids, if they're not in some type of crisis situation, it's hard to convince them that they need this stuff. So what I've found is it's a great kind of hook, a way to convince them to say, Hey, whatever it is that you love to do, whether that's.
tom: Playing a musical instrument, playing a sport, playing video games. Even if you're practicing this stuff consistently, it's gonna make you better at, well, like I said, whatever it is you love to do, it'll make you better at that. So the idea then is to hook them on this so they start to build the practices, build the habits consistently, and then.
tom: When challenges occur in their lives, they've kind of built that resilience they kind of can lean on this stuff and they're better prepared to hopefully, you know, get through those issues and maybe even thrive after them. so my whole kind of thing on the performance is more just as a way to convince kids to do it and to do It
tom: consistently.
juna: it's true. It will increase their performance. Yeah. it's
tom: will.
juna: not even really that much of a hook because it's true.
tom: Exactly.
tom: Yep. really my true end goal is to make them the best human [00:24:00] resilient human that they'll, they'll be so that no matter what, you know, most kids are not gonna become professional athletes.
tom: But all this stuff, they're gonna be learning in athletics and the mental training piece will apply in to whatever it is they do in the future. Whether it's going to business or you know what, whatever,
juna: Mm-hmm. I mean, it's gonna make them better at relationships, which is a huge
juna: factor, you know, for children. and for leaders alike. So, yeah, I, I really agree with you that the earlier you start the better, right? Because why, because of habits, right?
tom: Yeah.
juna: What do you think about
tom: Yeah, no, I, I always say, if we can teach kids when they're, you know, in the early grades, whether it's grammar school, middle school, or high school, and they build these habits, then. There's no telling what they're gonna do in the future. It's just gonna be incredible and that's the kind of future I wanna live in, where we've got all these people, who've got great, like you said, emotional intelligence.
tom: They've got the ability to focus that whole kindness and compassion that just comes from practicing this type of stuff. That's a great world to live in. If we've got more and more kids who are growing up with that and , continuing that through their adult lives.
juna: Mm-hmm. And I mean, obviously we're not gonna be perfect. We're all gonna have. We're not gonna be
juna: kind all the time or compassionate or nice, but, at least if we are aware and we are self-aware as much as we can be,
tom: Yeah.
juna: and then, react with kindness or an apology, right?
juna: We're not.
juna: Aiming for perfection here, but okay. How did it change you as a parent? Because you know, that's one of my favorite hobbies being a
tom: Yeah, my f and and my dad is, is my favorite job I've ever had, and I'm
juna: Oh, great. Me too.
tom: I agree.
juna: We have that in common
tom: I agree as well. I mean, I think it, it made me more patient, with them it, it helped me just because I guess I was able to , I've heard people talk about kind of that, that you get that little space between,
tom: what happens to you and then how you react to it. And as you practice this stuff more and more, that space becomes a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger. So you have time to kind of stop, take your breath and say, okay, what [00:26:00] do I want in this situation? Where before it was like, alright, I, you know, react negatively, throw, fly off the handle.
tom: As I was able to kind of expand that space, it would be, all right, what do I want in this situation? You know, I want my kids to know that I love 'em. I don't want, to hurt this relationship. So it, it kind of helped me to react better over time as I, as I practice this stuff more and more,
juna: Mm-hmm. And again, we always, we have missteps, right? but then at that point you are self-aware enough to be able to apologize maybe, or maybe in my case, I love to use the brain and explain what happened in my
tom: Yep. Then my amygdala took over and Yeah.
juna: yes. And you also know because you've been studying mind body medicine and youth, you know, about their brain development.
juna: So that will help us as parents to understand like sometimes there's no connection. they're not trying to manipulate you. They're not trying to like pull one over you. There's actually no connection.
tom: that's a great point.
juna: so that really helps with my
juna: patients, I don't know about,
tom: point.
juna: okay. So I wanna talk about the amazing work you're doing.
juna: If you don't mind talking about it a little bit. You just recently got or will be getting a huge grant in Illinois right, to teach mind-body medicine to kids in public schools.
tom: correct. So yeah, we're, we're, yeah, we're really excited about this. So we basically, we work through our, our congressman , as well as the United Way of Will County. Um, and we were able to get a, get a grant, , to have enough money to offer this program to teachers. So it's the Resilient Youth Program through the Benson Henry Institute and everything like that.
tom: And what we'll be doing, we've got enough money to actually train over 500 teachers that are in schools in well county. There'll be elementary, there'll be middle, junior high, as well as high schools, to be able to. Kind of do a, teach the teacher to teach these teachers so that they can then bring these techniques into the schools.
tom: And what I love about that is, 'cause then once they've got 'em in there, once the teacher, you know, has [00:28:00] this education, they can continue year after year
juna: and they're gonna reach, 25,000
juna: students.
tom: Over 25,000
tom: students will be able to
juna: if anybody's a grant writer out there listening to this, please contact us and then we can get this in New York as
tom: Correct. I say this is need
juna: many other states.
juna: Tom will come to New York. all right, so this is incredible news. I love it. Thank you so much for all this work you're
tom: Do you wanna
tom: Thank you. Thank you for the work you're doing as well.
juna: Phenomenal. All right. Thank you so
juna: much,
juna: Tom.
juna: We'll
juna: see you
juna: soon.
juna: Of course.
tom: Bye-Bye
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