Everyday Mindfulness Show: Mindful Performance Strategies For Challenging Times With Theresa Rose

Theresa Rose's official bio states that she is a nationally-acclaimed motivational speaker, award-winning author, high-performance coach, and standup comedian. Her latest book, Mindful Performance: How to Powerfully Impact Profitability, Productivity, and Purpose, is a practical how-to book on mindfulness that helps readers become more present and powerful at work, at home, and all day long.

Theresa’s soul bio: I am a…Mindfulness “Expert.” Energizer Bunny. Standup Comedian. Listen to learn.

Transcript

Welcome to the Everyday Mindfulness Show where we educate and inspire people to live fuller lives through mindful practices.

Let's get started with your host,

New York Times contributor,

Leadership advisor,

Sought after keynote speaker,

The author of the Amazon hot new release,

Everyday Mindfulness from chaos to calm in a crazy world,

She's smart,

Strong,

Sassy,

And a trendsetter in the field of mindful leadership.

Your host,

Holly Duckworth.

Welcome to another episode of the Everyday Mindfulness Show where we connect researchers,

Thought leaders,

Scientists,

Business professionals,

And real people living mindful practices out in this beautiful,

Interesting,

Transforming world today.

And I'm really honored to bring a fun and fantastic conversation to you today with my friend,

Teresa Rose.

And I know you guys hear me say all the time,

My friend,

Teresa Rose,

My friend,

This,

My friend that.

No,

Today we get to talk to someone who goes way back and we have,

We should one great grand adventure together.

We were both named the top five most up and coming speakers by the National Speakers Association.

And we got to dance and sing and play and give our gifts to the world on this stage in front of people like Brian Tracy and Jim Cathcart and others.

And while we didn't win,

We won a great memory and a great friendship.

Teresa,

Welcome to the show.

Thank you,

Holly.

I appreciate it.

Yes,

You and I started off as budding rock stars in the NSA world.

And we had a chance to really forge a strong friendship way back when.

And so it's,

And because of course our tech,

Our content is so aligned,

It's just been a really wonderful journey with you so far.

Well,

And I think it's beautiful in this time that our lives actually get to be a demonstration of our content.

And that while we've both written books,

We've,

We lived the lessons before we wrote the books and continue to live lessons that will go into books of the future,

No doubt.

You are the vice president of thought leadership for an organization called the C-suite network.

Tell us a little bit about the C-suite network.

Many people probably see the logo behind me.

They know that I've been involved for a long time,

But thought leadership,

That's a big,

That's a big,

Big deal.

Yeah,

Yeah.

So I originally got connected to the C-suite network when I was the president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Speakers Association.

And I met Jeffrey Hazlett at one of our NSA national conventions.

And I just,

I was immediately impressed by him as a speaker as well as a business person.

It was clear that he knew what he was doing about building a speaking empire.

So that's how I originally got into the orbit of the C-suite network.

And for years I was engaged as a contributor.

I believe very strongly in the power of partnership,

Collaboration,

Community.

You know,

I don't think any of us succeed alone.

So when I wanted to get my own thought leadership of Mindful Performance out there to the world in a more broad fashion,

I said there's just one place that I want to go and that was the C-suite network.

So I got involved with them as a contributor of content.

I brought my latest book,

Mindful Performance,

Onto C-suite TV for an episode of Best Seller TV,

Which I loved.

And I also have my podcast on C-suite radio.

So I had been involved with them just as another thought leader.

And last year in 2019,

Jeffrey,

The chairman of the C-suite network,

Said I think you need to be working with me.

I think that we need to have you on the team.

And so that's how this has all has come to be born is my role here now as the VP of Thought Leadership,

Helping other thought leaders be able to amplify their brilliance in a very crowded marketplace.

Well,

And I think it's also valuable to highlight that this also demonstrates the trajectory of mindfulness in the workplace.

You know,

The back of both of our books has some reference to,

You know,

Airy fairy,

Cosmic,

Woo woo,

Fluffy.

And there was a perception that mindfulness required you to sit on a yoga mat and,

You know,

Be in the silence and that it had a place,

But it was,

You know,

In ashrams and not in not in boardrooms.

And you know,

I,

I'm so grateful to see Jeff's awareness and his use of mindful practices and the continued inspiration of mindful practices for,

As you say,

Profitability,

Productivity and purpose.

And your book gives us 81 like super easy examples for how to do that in the workplace.

So I'm curious now that you're,

You're busy running as a VP in a major,

Major organization,

What are the two or three practices you lean on to every day so that you can be your most productive?

Great question.

So I see the,

You know,

All of the things that I offer as a toolkit,

Right?

And there's lots of tools that I can choose depending on what the situation is,

As can anyone.

I made it specifically so it's universal across at home,

At work,

All day long,

Doesn't matter what you do or who you do it for.

I will tell you my top three strategies that I've been using in this increasingly challenging environment in which we live.

Number one,

Start with the breath.

When all else fails,

That is your go to strategy to get yourself back into your full presence.

And I have done it many times on conference calls.

And because I just,

I just need to breathe,

I need to get back in because my head can get filled with lots of noise.

So start with the breath is my number one.

And I sometimes sound like I'm outgassing.

But you know,

I'm rest assured,

I'm taking good care of myself.

And then the other task,

The other strategy that I use very frequently is outcome energization.

That is that I see in my mind what I want to have come to fruition.

So I use active creative visualization to see my day unfold before I get out of bed.

I really work with that.

I really want to pave a successful,

Happy,

Healthy,

Prosperous,

Loving day in so many ways.

And so I play it in my head every single morning,

Outcome energization,

Energizing that vision that you want.

And then the third strategy that I lean into every single day is the gratitude rant.

Gratitude is a powerful medicine for anyone to really get into the vibration of acceptance,

Surrender,

Appreciation,

And and that boosts our immune systems when we do that.

So for me,

Whenever I have the fear wave come,

Whatever it,

You know,

For whatever circumstance,

It doesn't matter the current situation or any other future situations,

You know,

I'm a solo parent,

So I have opportunities to address my fears all kinds of ways.

And what I do is I do a gratitude rant,

I will just pepper myself with all of the things that I'm grateful for.

And and I say them out loud,

I say them out loud,

I'm not a journaler.

Just because I find that journaling for me is it's very soothing,

It's very rhythmic.

And it's a it's an enjoyable experience.

But when I'm really in a place where I'm my small self,

You know,

The self that doesn't really have hope,

Have strength,

Have resilience,

The one in me that's the drama queen,

What I find that really shoots me out of that vibration,

And puts me back into my full presence is a rant.

So I will just go,

Go,

Go,

Go,

Go all the things that I'm grateful for.

And they can be big things.

And they can be small things,

Things like I'm grateful that I have a ring light,

I'm grateful that I have,

You know,

A cool mouse pad that says I'm trying to be awesome today,

But I'm exhausted from being so freakin awesome yesterday,

You know,

Whatever it is,

That's going to boost my endorphins boost my energy.

That's what I do.

So those are just a couple of things that I do every single day.

So because I know you've been speaker on this topic,

I'm sure you've gotten the questions.

Okay.

I just can't get my brain over the woo woo factor of this.

What do you tell people that might be listening to the show that are like,

I'd like to try it,

But I don't know,

It feels a little woo woo.

Where do you start with that?

I would say go on to Google and put in mindfulness,

Elite,

Athlete,

Professional,

CEO,

And you'll start seeing the results of what these practices do for people who are peak performers.

I never try to convince anyone that mindfulness isn't airy fairy cosmic muffin.

What I like to do is show them people that have who are at the top of their fields in athlete,

In professional sports,

In the military,

In the boardroom,

In education,

In entertainment.

I mean,

The list is endless of people that use this.

So what I talk about is,

I don't want you to think about it as woo woo.

I want you to think about it as a highly effective focus tool that will enable you to make more money.

You will make more time,

Have more fun,

Earn more money,

Connect with people.

You're going to have a richer,

More powerful,

More potent experience if you use these proven strategies.

So I don't try to convince them about the woo woo stuff.

I look at it as nuts and bolts.

This is going to help you bottom line.

I love your sense of daily practice.

When you talk about outcome energy,

You've got a really cool phrase around,

What did you call it?

Outcome energization.

I energize my outcomes in my mind and in my field,

My entire self.

I energize that.

I energize what I want.

I really firmly believe in that.

I mean,

Where you are sitting right now,

Where your listeners are listening right now,

That was an idea before it became a reality.

The room that they're in,

The car that they're in,

The workout room they're in,

Their office,

It doesn't matter where they are right now,

That was an idea before it became a reality.

That idea then became a blueprint on some architect's desk.

That then got to a team of people that started with hammers and nails and saws and building those things.

Then it became the reality.

My life is worth that as well.

I'm going to energize that from a mental,

Emotional,

Spiritual,

Energetic perspective before it becomes a reality.

Do I get it all the time?

Absolutely not.

I mean,

I don't see Bradley Cooper anywhere here,

But I use it regularly.

I will say that when I prepave something energetically,

I am far more apt to have that happen than have I just been in the pinball machine of life where random things happen for me.

That's a really powerful tool.

I really encourage people to use that regularly.

Instead of going out of the house being nervous,

Anxious,

Afraid,

Whatever they might be feeling,

Do that.

Change the mindset.

Change the program.

Change the channel on what your program is running in your computer,

Which is your brain,

And say,

I'm going to play that I am healthy and vibrant and resilient and protected and strong and successful.

See that in your mind.

Absolutely.

I mean,

Einstein has said that if he had an hour to answer a problem,

He would spend 59 minutes of it in silence.

So those are the kinds of things that I think are really potent tools that people can use right now.

We,

In my coaching practice,

I've heard a lot of people say I've lost the long game.

Like what,

You know,

Here in Colorado,

Our schools have just made it official that they're not going to be going back to traditional school,

Which means now this went from,

You know,

A month of homeschool to many,

Many months of homeschool.

And I think this is a really great place as leaders and executives for us to recognize we don't,

We don't have a choice to change now,

But we do have a choice to where we change the channel.

Like you said,

That this could be a practice for us to use again,

Personally and professionally.

There's no spot.

We can't be mindful because mindful is about being fully in that moment.

So this is an invitation.

If you're,

You're an executive,

Maybe you're new,

Like you said,

To working from home,

That when you get up in the morning,

You know,

Before you,

You know,

Get yourself ready for the day,

Just sit on the edge of your bed and visualize yourself with confidence,

Go into that computer,

Opening that zoom,

Having the audio work and moving through each and every little piece.

But it's,

It's the feeling tone of it.

I'm sure this is an example of something that you've done.

And I just want to break that down for folks.

The same thing we can use with our,

With our kids that are now at home.

Yes.

You know,

Helping them.

Yes.

And,

And actually this relates to what I do as an improv performer.

So I use a lot of comedy and improv in my presentations and,

And,

And,

And on my zoom calls now too.

And one of the games that we play is a new choice.

So it's,

It's,

You know,

I will be doing a scene with someone in soap opera fashion,

Right?

Oh,

John,

No,

Don't that,

You know,

It's sort of melodramatic.

And then the,

You know,

Then we'll go new choice and it'll be a 70s romance comedy,

You know,

Or whatever the case might be.

So new choice,

New choice,

New choice.

So when you're finding yourself,

You know,

Less than optimal,

What's the new choice you can make.

And it can just be a small little pivot that you do in that,

Right?

And that's a really important.

Another strategy that I have in my book that I use frequently and I,

And I talked to my,

My family about this is called an emotional audit.

Where are you emotionally?

And without judging it,

Right?

When you audit something,

All you're doing is looking at the facts,

Looking at the data,

What is the current scenario,

Right?

So my energetic emotional audit may be,

I'm tired,

I'm frustrated,

I'm whatever I might be recognizing that,

And then up leveling it just a bit,

Just one new choice that's different than that.

That's a little bit elevated.

Don't go from,

You know,

Despondence to ecstasy,

Though,

That's a big leap,

Right?

Although you can do it.

It's a lot easier to just stair step it up.

And so constantly bringing yourself back to awareness of where you are now.

That's a really key thing.

And for your listeners,

Holly,

I really encourage them to strengthen that mental muscle of that.

This is all this is this is mental mastery that we're talking about here.

When you talk about what you do with everyday mindfulness,

It's absolutely imperative to strengthen that mental muscle of awareness.

So you can make those better choices,

Those more elevated choices,

Those more beneficial choices to you and to everyone in your orbit,

Right,

But they it starts with awareness.

You use a phrase that that we're hearing a lot,

Unfortunately,

Right now,

Which is this fear wave.

That that hits us and it used to be,

You know,

We might kind of have the sort of same cadence feeling all day,

But now we may have an hour where we're laughing and we're sad and then we're frustrated and then we're happy.

Speak to your thoughts on that this idea of mental mastery is a practice.

It's not a perfect How are you navigating?

How are you navigating these fear waves when they come?

Well,

I'll tell you right now yesterday,

I was on an all hands team meeting at the end of a very long week.

And I had to put I had to click on the stop my video button.

Because I was losing it.

Okay,

I was not.

And it wasn't that I was,

You know,

It's just sometimes emotions are just so big,

That they come out your eyeballs in the form of liquid love,

Right and and tears.

And so I needed to go into stop my video so I could just be in that gunk for a while,

And then go,

Okay,

So I'm going to allow myself to just do this.

And then I what I do is I always my number one thing when I'm in that spin out place is to take one step back.

As the observer,

I watch myself,

I watch myself melt down.

And by watching myself melt down,

Or whatever,

You know,

It doesn't have to be a super drama.

It's just anything where I'm where the fear wave hits me,

And I'm underneath it.

I will watch it and see it and go,

Isn't that interesting?

Now what is a choice that I can make?

Well,

While I'm in the middle of that,

Right.

And so for me,

What I did yesterday,

When I had the wave hit me of emotion and overwhelm,

What I have our tools next to me.

So I have rose oil,

Rose essential oil that I just can put on my hands and smell and okay,

Yes.

Okay,

Yeah,

Wake up,

Wake up,

Wake up,

Right?

Or getting outside having a breath of fresh air,

All of those things.

That's what I recommend that you do when the when the fear wave hits you tap into a toolkit.

I really encourage your listeners get a toolkit,

A self care toolkit that will help you through those times.

Don't try to just will it to will it away.

That in my experience,

That doesn't work.

I was talking with my business partner last night,

And we were bantering about the idea,

Feel it,

Heal it,

Deal it meaning you know,

We've got we mindfulness as a practice,

And we're all being new emotions are waving through us as parents as executives,

This home office dynamic,

You know,

Whether you're you know,

Parent dealing with kids or kids dealing with parents now,

But we've been we're gonna have to have some grace to feel it,

Ask the question.

Like you said,

Be willing to heal it,

Pick that one word or that one that one new thing you want to have instead.

And then then deal with it and understand that these times it's kind of like slicing an onion,

We may deal with it once with our essential oil and the next time we deal with it with the breath and the next time we light a candle.

And all of it is good right now.

Everything is good.

And and anything that that reminds us of our unity.

That's what I really,

Really am living in right now for myself,

Because one of the things that's kind of interesting as being a mindfulness expert,

If there is such a thing is we have this glorious opportunity to live our content every single day,

Right?

We we get to choose how we're going to be.

And and one of those opportunities is to,

To just find those little moments where you can deal with it.

You know,

You can have the experience and you can deal with it and you can move on and,

And sometimes humor to works,

You know,

Suck it up buttercup,

You know,

And just do things that can kind of shake it up a little bit is is really helpful.

And you know,

Leaning into each other this this concept of unity.

When I when I like this this morning,

I had a conversation with somebody about,

You know,

What's going on in the world and the challenges and what I said was,

We used to have a I might say a naughty word.

I hope that's okay.

But this was this was this is what I said,

I said,

You know,

You remember the game that we that used to be on TV,

Who wants to be a millionaire?

That was like a TV game show thing.

And now it's kind of like,

Whose life is shittier?

Let's not play that game.

Okay,

Where everybody because everybody's got stuff,

Right?

Everybody's got things that are really not great.

And what what tends to happen is if we can take a look at each other and connect with each other and see our humanity and see our empathy.

This is a great opportunity right now in the midst of these challenges for us to not only strengthen those mental muscles,

But strengthen those heart muscles to let's let's see each other better.

And it's kind of ironic that we're seeing each other through these little screens.

Instead of you know,

In person,

I'll tell you what,

Once I see real people again,

And we get to get on the road,

I'm going to hug and not stop hugging,

Because I'm a hugger.

So what I'm doing as is a process of this is to really try to see the humanity and in each other and and laugh and try to keep that levity going because it is really powerful medicine in the midst of challenge.

I just love what you're saying here because it speaks to a concept that's been bubbling up for me,

Which is this idea of navigating awkward.

That you know,

It used to be well,

Awkward happened to that person who was wearing the you know,

The plaid shorts and the you know,

The fleece sweatshirt or like whatever.

Right now we're all in that that messy magic of navigating awkward and mindfulness.

You know,

You talked about your first practices that you know,

Returning to the breath.

Yeah.

And that that authenticity who said,

You know,

I don't know what I don't know what to say right now.

But I'm going to be with you.

Exactly.

And I'm going to and I'm going to listen or I'm going to hear hear you.

And we're going to co-create this mindfully together and use that breath tool.

Use that visioning tool that we are smarter,

Braver,

Stronger than we think we are in these times are going to invite those of us to play in that way.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

This is this is like for me what I perceive this as is we've all been given the material in school.

We've read.

We've gotten the books.

We've watched the film strips on the on the AV cart that got pushed in front of us.

And some of us fell asleep during that film strip of how to deal with life.

And some of us paid attention.

Some of us read the books and some of us ripped out the pages.

Now we are in the lab.

We are in the lab.

How are we actually going to employ the tools that we've been taught to do?

Because everybody knows the things that we're talking about.

We didn't come up with these things on our own,

Right?

You have very similar strategies in your material.

We all just have a different frame from which to share that,

Right?

And different ways in which to look at it and execute it.

So now is the lab.

And we get to decide how we're going to do it.

And some of us are going to do really well and then,

You know,

Have occasional bad days and some of us are going to have 50-50,

Right?

And some of us are just now starting to learn how to do it.

They're going,

Whoa,

I want to pay attention now.

I want to pay,

Because I'm seeing it.

I don't know if you're seeing it,

Holly,

But I'm absolutely seeing that this concept of mindfulness and the tools,

This is not airy fairy cosmic muffin and people aren't even talking that way anymore.

They are really,

Really aching for clamoring for craving some instruction in this stuff.

They know it works and they know they need it,

Right?

They know they need it because they are falling apart.

There's people,

You know,

I don't even want to go into it.

We all know what was happening with those who can't address reality,

Right?

And they're under the wave of fear and they don't have their personal power solidified and anchored and grounded.

We know what that looks like.

And our jobs as thought leaders is to get that information out there in the best possible way to as many possible people.

I want you to shower your brilliance out into the world.

I want every single person to know how to accomplish everyday mindfulness because it's going to help us move through this together.

Well,

Thank you so much for that,

Teresa.

It really is a powerful time and,

You know,

Again,

To use your,

You know,

That unity.

I always come back to,

You know,

There's a lot of times where we've made that long list of all the things that separate us that make us all very,

Very,

Very different.

And the one thing that connects every human,

No matter what country they're in,

Is not this disease.

It is that power of that breath.

Absolutely.

Using that as a tool.

Just before you jump on a Zoom meeting,

Take a deep breath and get fully there.

And if you're if you're coming onto a Zoom meeting right now,

I got a lot of people coming in from a lot of different places.

Be that leader that navigates that awkward and says,

We're going to we're just let's take a breath together or let's each say something of gratitude or,

You know,

Take one moment to visualize what you actualize.

I'm so grateful to have your wisdom in my world as part of the C-suite network.

For those who don't know,

I am leading the Mindful Leadership Council.

Teresa has been a great partner to us on that.

And so if you're interested in continuing to to grow and be a part of that Mindful Leadership Council,

I know that Teresa and I would welcome you to be a part of this continued conversation.

Yes,

Absolutely.

It's all about community.

Find those people,

Find your like minded folks who really do want to elevate their level of leadership because now more than ever,

We need mindful leaders.

So Teresa,

If people are interested in the C-suite network and want to get more resources,

What's the easiest way to get to you?

Oh,

My gosh,

The easiest way to get to me is just send me an email.

Heck,

Teresa.

Rose at C-suite network.

Com.

There's a rose if you ever forget.

That's how you spell my name.

There's a rose.

Well,

How fun is that?

I you know,

I've known you all these years and I never get never give that any thought.

I didn't for years and then someone wrote it out for me.

They said,

Do you know that your name says there's a rose?

I was like,

That's awesome.

That is so cool.

And you use this rose essential oil too.

That's so fun.

I do.

I do.

I'm just like a rose.

I'm pretty but I have some thorns every once in a while.

And I'm like,

I'm going to ask my ex-husband he probably could attest to it.

Well,

Well,

You know,

Mindfulness is finding the love and finding the funny in every moment.

And it's so great to be business professionals together.

My last name is Duckworth.

My middle name is I own I haven't ever told the story on the on the air before it.

I did a meditation again,

A breathing meditation with the word.

And look in the center look in the center.

My name is I own.

I'm one.

My first name is holy becomes Holly,

This and Duckworth stop ducking your worth at the center you're holy and worthy.

That was a meditation that I had.

So you know,

All of us have a message whether it's in the essential oil or in our name or in our words and in our homes and our offices today.

So we hope that this conversation is inviting you to take a breath visualize.

Yes.

I would like to just take this one last moment.

Holly,

If I may.

I want to just take one moment to take a few deep purposeful breaths for every single person that is listening to this right now.

That they and all those who are in their orbit.

Be safe.

Be well.

Be happy.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate that.

With that remember mindful matters and so do you.

Thank you for joining us for today's show.

For more mindfulness every day,

Visit everydaymindfulnessshow.

Com and download the three day challenge and experience the ABCs of mindfulness.