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Hello, and welcome back to another episode of ‘Thriving while Golden’. By way of introduction, My name is Dr. Eno Nsima-Obot, and I have been the hostess of this podcast, since it initially debuted in November of, 2019.

This podcast is designed for that woman over 50 who is seeking to thrive into her golden years. But as I have pointed out in more recent episodes, given the current events that we are facing, I encourage all women to share this with your family members and your friends. Because we are collectively a global community right now going through significant change.

I’ve been a little silent over the last couple of weeks, simply because I’ve been going through some adjustments so to speak to my life situation.

However…however, in the last two weeks, especially I have really been trying to find my voice. And so I decided to jump onto the podcast tonight to kind of like, put a stamp in the ground, to to put my stamp in the ground as a means of a stamp in time as a means of really verbalizing and thinking through and and talking through my emotions because if I’m feeling this way, as a human being, then I’m sure there are many of you out there feeling, having similar feeling similar conflicting feelings.

And how is that impacting our mental and emotional, and spiritual wellbeing collectively as the human race?

So for those of you who may be listening to this later on and, you know, as time goes on the memory begins to fade I just want to put in into perspective exactly what has been going on, especially for those of us in the United States, although this apparently is a global phenomenon

On Memorial Day, a gentleman by the name, George Floyd in Minneapolis was brutally murdered by the police. Yes, I said, brutally murdered by the police. Due to the advent of social media, we were able to watch this man’s life being taken from him. Despite pleas from people in the crowd asking this policeman, or individual knelt with his knee to the neck of Mr. George Floyd, causing him to die.

Now as a physician, I have seen people take their last breath. They come to the hospital and sometimes it’s not a good outcome. So, I have seen people take their last breath but seeing this man take his last breath shook me to the core as I know it has shaken many other individuals and so that is why we have a term I’m going to borrow from an NPR commentator that I was listening to early on today, “civil discourse”,not civil unrest -civil discourse. There are hundreds and thousands of people throughout the United States, and even the world, expressing their displeasure, and asking for change.

And so this is civil discourse. But what is the impact that this is having on our mental and emotional, and spiritual well being and so part of the reason I decided to jump onto the podcast tonight was to …to perhaps, put a voice to that and provide a resource that I’ve been using. And that I hope will help my listeners and I encourage you to share with others.

Let’s put it in perspective, we have been dealing with a pandemic, which in itself was a traumatic event, it literally made this coronavirus pandemic made the world stand still. For the last two going into three months, the world. Literally came to a standstill!

And just as we were beginning to pick up from the trauma, a lot of us have lost jobs, lost sources of income lost people who died through the pandemic, may even have been affected by the virus and survived. Perhaps maybe experiencing some side effects, some health issues related to going through the virus.

So, we’ve just been through that one trauma. And it’s almost like we’ve just been slammed with another.

And that’s not to say that police brutality has not been going on in, especially the African American community for years and years. In fact, when I was listening to this NPR commentary. there’s a reason that the police state was set up. But I’m going… I’m not going… I’m not going to digress, but I’m just pointing out that we have been through significant trauma initially with the coronavirus. And now getting slammed with the trauma of witnessing this man on plain video, take his last breath is a pierce to the heart. And so that’s why we have this civil unrest and civil discourse.

Now, before I go into why it’s important that we mitigate the mental and emotional and spiritual effects that this has on us why it’s very important that we take the time to take care of ourselves. I’d like to say this, and this in no way is a political statement. It’s a simple statement.

Because we each need to execute our civic duty of going out there. After the protests are gone. And when the memory of this event begins to fade. We all need to go out there and do our civic duty of voting.

Now, I do know that a number of years ago 2016 to be specific, a lot of young people

came up with a sentiment that their votes did not matter. And I’m sure history has taught us that that is not true.

So, I’d like to encourage those young people who have been out there protesting to make sure, and we ask their mothers and their elders. Need to impress upon them, that every vote counts, and just as we have been out there, irrespective of the coronavirus pandemic being out there in crowds and I’ve heard a number of people say they don’t care about the fact that they could die from the coronavirus but they are there to raise the voices in protest and discourse, to effect change. Just like we’ve had that sentiment, I’d like to encourage us moving forward in November, to remember that, irrespective of whether the virus comes back and in a second wave that we practice the things we need to do the social distancing, the wearing of masks but we do not allow the fear of the virus to prevent us from going out there to vote in November. And not only November, but moving forward because the only way we can affect change is by paying attention to who it is that we… we vote in at the state level, and also the federal level.

So, I’m speaking to you but I’m also speaking to me, because that’s important.

On another level, if you have not already turned in your census, please do. Because these things, again, contribute to our access to health care to, you know, how, how our representatives are picked in the electoral college and all that, you know. I don’t have the verbiage of somebody who’s, you know who’s politically oriented but I’m sure you’d understand that the census, and voting, all play a role. So yes please go out there and be safe, and express your voice and raise your voice.

But importantly it’s time to also make sure that we.. we follow through on this. And as a mother and as what I would describe as an elder in society, being a woman over 50, I would encourage us all to…to make sure that our younger ones. We impress it upon them, to make sure that they go out there and vote.

So, the second half of this podcast, I wanted to speak about how we need to mitigate the stress that these events have had on us.

I know I’ve spoken about things that we can do in the in past episodes and please feel free to go back to past episodes. But one thing I’d like to speak about today is a technique derived from HeartMath™ and, incidentally, I am training as a heart math practitioner right now because I firmly believe that there is a correlation and established through research

between your mind and your body, and the body keeps score of trauma.

And what we have collectively been through as a human, as a member of the human race

is trauma, trauma through the coronavirus initially, and now trauma of the civil unrest that we are going through, particularly in the United States of America, but I know it’s a ripple effect throughout the globe.

So, this technique is a mindfulness practice derived from HeartMath™. If you are in a safe place for instance your home or your office, as long as you’re not driving. I’d encourage you to join me as I demonstrate this technique. Nowadays, I’d like you to first of all just sit relaxed. Place your palms face down on your thighs.

And let’s center ourselves for practice. You can close your eyes- if you don’t feel comfortable, comfortable, completely closing your eyes, you can just lower your eyelids and perhaps look down at your palms on your thighs.

And I’d like you to take three slow deep breaths.

Inhale, for a count of six, hold for a count of two, and then slowly exhale, for a count of six. And do this three times.

Then I’d invite you to place your palms- the palms of your hands over the left side of your chest

overlying your heart.

And with your eyes still closed, I’d like you to think of a positive emotion.

For the purposes of this demonstration, I am going to pick the emotion of love.

And as you think of the emotion of love, I’d like you to associate it with a color. Again for the purposes of this demonstration, I am going to pick the color. Baby Blue. And so, collectively, we’re going to take a deep breath in, inhaling. The color of love. The baby blue color of love. Inhaling it into our chest and holding for a count of six. Inhaling for count of six holding for a count of two, and then slowly exhale, the opposite emotion.

In this case, it would be hate.

And I’d like you to do this for a cycle for three cycles.

Inhaling love.

Holding for count to two. And slowly exhale in the opposite emotion.

And then sit back and take two cycles of normal breath before we move on to the next stage.

Now as you inhale in that baby blue emotion of love, I’d like to you to see that envelope in your entire being. From the top of your head, spreading down to your face, your neck, your shoulders.

In addition to taking care of yourselves. Delicious self-care, practice, and delicious self-care, I call that. So I try to leave these episodes to under 20 minutes, I know we’re a little over 20 minutes right now but if you are struggling, if you would just like to share with me if you would like to put your voice to this trauma, please feel free to reach out to me.

You can do that by going to my website www.doctoreno.com. Again, I’ll put that in the show notes or send me an email info@doctoreno.com.

If there are any topics you’d be interested in learning more about because the show will go on the show must go on. We must be voices of wisdom, we must be voices of transformation.

And the only way we can do that is by making sure that we optimize our health and well being and by so doing we actually create a ripple effect, because we teach that to our kids. And it goes throughout the globe. You know, I’m passionate about the feminine energy in whatever expression it comes.

So I’m going to sign off but I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to hear how you’re feeling. I’d love to hear how you’re coping. I’m being raw here. I mean, like I said, this is not an expert, you know, expert, always speaking about you know what, she knows… she’s…. I’m going through this too. And so I hope that by exposing my vulnerability and my challenges that gives you the ability and the space to do the same thing too.

Until next time, be safe. Be well, and thrive on