What is the Wellness program at MD Anderson Cancer Center doing the implementation of Epic? Programming focused on strengthening resilience and mindfulness.

1. Epic Stress?
This Too Shall Pass

2. Many of us
spend our lives
exhausted by
our inability to
cope with the
acute and
chronic stress
in our lives.

3. As pilots of our lives
many times we make
decisions and take
action because of
changes resulting
from the actions of
others...
and this brings
unavoidable stress.
McKenna (2011)

4. Real or Perceived
Threats Stress
Drive
Fight or
Flight
Response
Stress Hormone
Cocktail

5. • Increased heart rate
• Increased blood pressure
• Increased rate of breathing
• Increased muscle tension
• Increased perspiration
• Increased metabolic
activity
• Changes in appetite
• Suppressed immune
system
• Persistent feelings of
anxiety, irritability,
depression and muscle
tension
• Increased heart rate and
blood pressure, increasing
the risk of heart attack and
stroke
It’s not the load that breaks
you down, it’s the way you
carry it. Lou Holtz
Chronic StressAcute Stress

6. We all face
challenging
journeys, but
they are our
journeys, and
our futures to
energize …

7. How we react to stress…
Difficult childhoods or fantastic
life adventures in your family
history might bequeath you a
personality with anxiety or
resilience by altering the
epigenetic expressions of
genes in the brain.
But these epigenetic
expressions are life’s Etch a
Sketch and when shaken hard
enough, can be wiped clean
and positively altered.
Hurley (2013)

8. Thriving
Resilience
Healthy Coping
Just Getting By (Tolerating)
Unhealthy Coping
Addiction
Distress
Bennett (2014) Raw Coping Power
Set-Point
There are different levels
through which we process
stressful experiences from
severe distress to rich uplifting
experiences of thriving.
Our values help determine what
we settle for and our day-to-day
willingness to raise our levels.

9. Thriving
Resilience
Healthy Coping
Just Getting By (Tolerating)
Unhealthy Coping
Addiction
Distress
Bennett (2014) Raw Coping Power
It is always a choice to move up
or down and our environment
can have a strong influence.
Bi-directional arrow conveys our
set-point can fluctuate depending
on changes in our situation.
We are inclined to hangout at or
between levels. This is where
our values are important for they
tend to be more enduring than
day-to-day changes.

10. Man never made any material as resilient as
the human spirit. Bernard William, English Philosopher 1929-2003
Resilience
• The ability to bounce back in
challenging times
• The ability to persevere, stay positive,
and adapt in difficult circumstances
• A form of psychological / behavioral
immunity to distress and dysfunction
• Discovering daily well-being practices
that sustain your resilience and values
in challenging times

11. Basic Resiliency Principals
• We are designed to learn, grow, and transform
from life experiences
• Our nervous systems are a well-oiled system that
deal with stress at every stage
• We can systematically transform our approach to
stress
• We have an innate raw coping power we can tap
into
• Our values determine the level which we process
stress
• Social groups help others tap into their raw
coping power and thrive
• Going beyond resilience is thriving and flourishing

12. How Resilient Are You?
The questions on the worksheet are about resilience. Score each
question with the best answer that fits you. After you have finished ‐
total your score.
1 – absolutely disagree
2 – disagree,
3 – neutral,
4 – agree,
5 – absolutely agree
www.thebounceblog.com

13. How Resilient Are You? Scoring
60-75 You’re a super ball!
45-59 You are bouncing right along…
most of the time.
30-44 Your ball has gone a little flat.
15-29 Your ball is completely flat.

14. • Mindfully engaging our hearts and souls in sustaining positive
emotional states ….
• Increasing our resilient life energy through our natural
strengths and being our best by mindfully living our values
every day ….
• Committing to daily practices that serve as the fuel for
empowering our life energy, and power our resilient
reserves….
• Living fully by integrating body-mind-spirit resulting in whole
person living ….
Keys to Building Resiliency

15. Turn to your neighbor and take a few
minutes to talk about what
mindfulness means to you and how it
affects your life and work.

16. Mindfulness
Living in the Moment
Very old concept appearing in Buddhism
and Hindu writings. 1970s Jon Kabat-
Zinn established the Mindfulness Based
Stress Reduction Program.
A state of active, open attention to the
present. Fill your body’s senses with
what you are experiencing at the present
moment.
Mindfulness opens up a gap between an
event or emotion and your response to it.
Event
Emotion
Gap
Reaction
More mental
space to
make better
decisions &
wiser choices
Langley (2013)
Mindfulness Workbook

17. Being – Doing – Auto Pilot
Being
• Fully connected to
the present moment
• Accepting things as
they are
• Open to all
emotions
• Grounded, still,
tranquil
• Provides the brain a
rest from doing
• Provides a mental
place we can think
about life, work on
relationships, make
decisions
Doing
• Doing is fun
• Task oriented
• Focused on
problem solving
• Measures
achievement
• Goal driven
• Critical of failure
• Not helpful when
dealing with
emotional matters
• Tend to keep
emotions at a
distance
Autopilot
•Unconscious
competence
•Washing up
•Cleaning the car or filling
it up with gas
•When locked in
autopilot, we ten to react
automatically without
stopping to think – bad
news for relationships

18. Mindfulness Activities – Breathing Mindfully
• Every breath we take confirms our moment to moment relationship with
the world
• Ongoing rhythm of inhalation and exhalation gives us the nourishment
and removes the waste
Mindful Breathing Exercise
• Breathe in and breathe out deeply
• Your eyes can be open or closed
• Pay attention and relax into the breath
• Use mindful breathing when:
• Someone is saying unkind words to you
• You are holding yourself back from a situation
• You are waiting and trying to be patient
• Walking
Titmuss (2003) Mindfulness for Everyday Living

19. Mindfulness Activities – Hand and Feet
• Our hands reveal various states of the mind – calmness, sensitivity, and
restlessness.
• Mindful awareness of our hands and feet can help you cultivate a deeper and more
conscious relationship between the mind and body.
Mindful Exercises for Hand and Feet
• Softly rub and then clap your full open hands together
• Turn your attention to the bare sensation of your hands touching
• Develop a calm focus on your hands, if your mind wanders bring it back
• Where are your feet? Firmly “grounded” to the floor or crossed with one hanging in
the air?
• When walking be mindful of how your feet move through space and how they
ground you when standing or as they make contact with the ground.
Titmuss (2003) Mindfulness for Everyday Living

20. Turn to your neighbor and take a few
minutes to talk about what whole
person living means to you and how it
affects your life and work.

21. Mindful Whole Person Living
Engagement
Growth
Happiness
Positivism
Meaning
Purpose
Faith
Hope

22. Positive emotional feelings that energize
our resiliency ….
•Joy
•Gratitude
•Serenity
•Interest
•Hope
•Pride
•Amusement
•Inspiration
•Awe
•Love

23. • 95% of our emotions are
determined by the way we talk to
ourselves
• Talking to ourselves in a positive
way throughout the day, builds a
predisposition to be positive
• Positivity opens our hearts and
minds making us more receptive
and creative
• Positivity transforms us for the
better
Joy
Gratitude
Serenity
Interest
Hope
Pride
Amusement
Inspiration
Awe
Love
Self-Talk – Words Can Change Your Brain
Fredrickson (2009) & Newberg & Waldman (2013)

24. • Engaging in life fully, being mindful
and present for each moment.
• Recognizing and using our natural
strengths increases our engagement
capabilities.
• Natural strengths are things we do
well with little effort, yet engage and
energize us because of their link to our
core values.

25. Connections, Support, and Commitments
Reenergizing the “We” in Life
George Everly (2012)
suggests that interpersonal
connectedness and support
may be the single most
powerful predictor of
resilience.
What characteristics
engender connectedness and
support, and commitment?
The most compelling
characteristic is integrity or
doing that which is right.

26. • Why are we here? What is life about?
What is my purpose?
• A life of meaning is one focused on
living a life of purpose and passion,
and contributing to the lives of others.
• A life with meaning thrives rather than
just survives.
Daily meaningful efforts to
contribute to our own lives
and the lives of others
builds our resilient energy.

27. Belief in something larger than yourself:
love, family, peace, and God ….
•Hope
•Joy
•trust
•Confidence
•Conviction
•Grace
•Devotion
•Steadfastness
•Prayer / Mediation

28. Striving daily for whole person living requires
resiliency to ripple through our life energy!

29. Wellness Practices that Sustain our Resilient Life Energy
Sleep ‐ Nutrition ‐ Physical Activity ‐ Stress Management /
Relaxation

30. • Insufficient sleep makes it hard to
concentrate, cope, or be happy.
• Poor nutrition reduces energy,
increases risks, and exacerbates
health challenges.
• Too little physical activity or exercise
is like taking depressants.
• Weak stress management /
relaxation and mindfulness practices
leads to illness, injury and burnout.

31. Taking time each
day for mindful
moments brings
your back to who
you are and what
is important? In
doing so, you open
your heart to whole
person living.

32. When first diagnosed,
I felt like I needed to
cram as much as I
could into life, but I’ve
learned cramming
leaves no time for
living. It’s through
the spaces we leave
ourselves that we
breathe in life and
experience full living.

33. By being
mindful we
make space
inside
ourselves, so
that the “be”
inside can
speak.

34. Mindful moments
of deep listening
hold everything
open till what
can’t be seen or
heard is felt –
changing who we
are.

35. Deep mindful
listening mixes the
grit of our
humanness with the
dust of “just being”,
connecting our living
essence (mind,
heart, emotions,
intuitions, and life
experiences).

36. In the same way
the ocean calls
us to wade, then
dive into the
deep.
Mindfulness
calls us to
increasingly
enter more fully.

37. When we open
our hearts and
minds to
possibilities, life
offers us new
practices,
insights,
solutions, and
collaborations.
The interwoven
fabric of thriving.

38. Thriving and Flourishing is not just Surviving,
but a Mindset Change
Daily physical activity,
balanced nutrition,
relaxation / stress
management, &
healthy sleep help us
build and sustain our
resilient life energy
and grow our ability to
thrive and flourish!

39. “Always remember, you are braver than you believe, stronger than you
seem, and smarter than you think…….”