Be REAL Week 1

Learning to Tune In (Part 1)

In this session, we talked about the program’s goal to help strengthen skills for well-being. Each week we will share practices and tools that can help us:

  • Reduce stress
  • Manage emotions
  • Navigate challenging situations
  • Build connections and compassion

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The basis for these skills is learning to tune into ourselves, including our feelings, reactions, and experiences. We also reviewed key concepts including resilience, mindfulness, compassion, and self-compassion. Finally, we talked about the stress response as being a normal, physiological system that can send us into hyperarousal (i.e. fight or flight mode) or hypoarousal (i.e. freeze mode). You can review these in our 7-minute Stress Physiology Video.

Our stress response is our body’s way of alerting us to danger. But sometimes our body might be on high alert, keeping us in one of those states when it’s not helpful. In Be REAL, we focus on learning skills to respond instead of react automatically. Watch this 3-minute video for highlights on how mindfulness can help us learn to respond.

Tuning Into the Breath

The breath can be an excellent anchor for awareness. Try our 5-minute guided practice Tuning into the Breath (Sintonizarme con la Respiración), which can help in learning to identify the breath’s patterns. You can also follow the cues below. C2f71fb3 Cdbe 4c6a B54c A2d56d84c742

Home Practice

Noticing Practices

  • Your stress response. Can you identify times when you go into fight, flight or freeze mode? Can you identify triggers that caused that stress response? Watch the 7-minute Stress Physiology Video.
  • How stress affects you. How does stress impact your body, mind, emotions, or attitude? 

Guided & Reflective Practices