Harmony in High Stress: Mindfulness for Essential Workers – Podcast
Quan Bernardine, a licensed clinical social worker at LifeStance Health discusses the critical importance of mindfulness for essential workers. Quan shares her passion for integrating psychotherapy with mindfulness to combat chronic burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma. She emphasizes the benefits of mindfulness, supported by stats from the American Psychological Association, and introduces simple, practical techniques like the 5×5 breathing exercise.
The discussion also covers the unique mental health challenges essential workers face, barriers to maintaining mindfulness practices, and the importance of self-prioritization for overall well-being.
Learn more about Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
Nicholette Leanza:
Welcome to Convos from the Couch By LifeStance Health, where leading mental health professionals help guide you on your journey to a healthier, more fulfilling life.
Nicholette Leanza:
Hello everyone, and welcome to Convos from the Couch by Life Stands Health. I’m Nicholette Leanza, and today I’m really delighted to be talking with Dominique Bernardine and we’ll be talking about mindfulness for essential workers. So Quan, so great to have you on. So important is this conversation right now and everything that’s been going on, so really looking forward to talking with you today.
Quan Bernardine:
Me too. Me too.
Nicholette Leanza:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what draws you to use mindfulness in your professional practice.
Quan Bernardine:
Yeah. So hello, everyone. My name, like she said, is Dominiqua Quan Bernardine. I’m a licensed clinical social worker and I have a huge passion for helping individuals heal. That’s one of my biggest goals is to help people heal. And one of the ways that I do this is by combining psychotherapy with mindfulness. One of the reasons why I use it because I know firsthand what it’s like to have chronic burnout, to have compassion fatigue, and I know what a lot of recent events that’s going on it’s causing people to be in distress at an all-time high. And so because of that, I always like to use mindfulness because it can reduce stress up to 38% and anxiety by 58% according to the American Psychological Association. So this is one of the reasons why I like to incorporate it.
Another reason why I like to incorporate it is because I’ve learned over the course of my own personal experience and with my clients, incorporating cognitive things, so help you process what’s going on in the brain, I think these are all great, but also going deeper into the body because that’s where we notice where trauma stores, that’s where we notice those warning signs that come up where you’re starting to feel tense or you’re like, “Quan, my back is hurting,” and making those mind-body connections. So I absolutely love to use it and it’s something I use every single day, especially for essential workers and our day-to-day people.
Nicholette Leanza:
Love it. Love it. So what unique mental health challenges do essential workers face that make mindfulness particularly beneficial for them?
Quan Bernardine:
Yeah, so one, like I said, so essential workers experience, high level of burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma, especially on their day-to-day. They’re witnessing people go through traumatic experiences firsthand. And so a 2021 study found out that 76% of healthcare workers reported burnout and 40% of them consider leaving their profession due to stress. And I think a big piece of that is, one, “Quan, I don’t have the time. I don’t have the time.” And also, “Do I really want to process this right now in this moment?” In addition to having their own personal lives.
But I think what helps is creating a lifestyle of doing five minutes of check-ins. Just checking in with the body in the morning. “Okay, before I go to work, before I tap into the world, before I turn on, let me connect with me. What’s going on in my body? Noticing your heart rate, noticing my mind, doing very simple things. I think sometimes it can become a nuance. Or you may say, “Quan, this feels like a to-do list. I have to add another layer?” But it’s just waking up and adding it to for a part of your routine that helps you regulate your nervous system.
Nicholette Leanza:
So important, definitely. What common barriers do essential workers face in maintaining a mindfulness practice and how can they overcome it?
Quan Bernardine:
Yeah, so like I mentioned, time is a big factor, emotional exhaustion. So there are times where we fear, we have worry, we’re fearing, and it takes an overload in our body where we start saying, “I just feel physically fatigued and I may not have the motivation to do it.” And also people are skeptical about it. “Okay, Quan, this sounds good in theory.” Some people are like this, “It sounds good but what does it look like?”
And one of the ways that I do that is by engaging or encouraging people to do this for five minutes to 10 minutes out of their day just sitting with yourself. Like right now I’m sitting in a chair, I have my feet on the ground and I’m noticing my body. I’m using the breath. So if you notice this morning as you’re getting up or this afternoon, or whatever time you’re listening to this right now, ask yourself, “What’s going on in my body?” Notice the sensations that come up, even notice, “Where am I right now?” That those are all important factors to help you start becoming aware. So I always use mindfulness as a way of grounding and awareness to help use that tool to know what you need in those moments.
Nicholette Leanza:
I think you bring up such good points of just checking in with ourselves and grounding ourselves because I think often we navigate our day just so disconnected from our body. We’re just trying to push through and we don’t realize the tension in our neck and just how tense that stress is sitting in our body. So I think these are great tips for essential workers and also for all of us.
Quan Bernardine:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I think, like you said, just those micro steps. I practice this, I preach this all the time to my clients of, “Let’s do micro steps.” Micro steps. You can choose to do this at the top of your day, the middle of your day or the evening and just sit with yourself. You can do breathing, so you may even go, “Quan, what if I don’t want to sit? Maybe I want to lay down.” You can do that also. Mindfulness is flexible to your needs. It’s flexible and it’s also a personalized experience for you. So what may look a certain way for other people or to someone else, it’s different. And it’s okay. The goal is, “Can I notice what’s going on in my body? Can I do deep breaths and connect in that way and notice what comes up for me?
So it’s very simple. I think a lot of times there are other fears that come up, but it’s something doable and I want to challenge you today, this morning, wherever you are to try it, see if it works, use music as a tool. Go to a safe space. Go to a safe space. What is my safe space? Or, “Quan, I may not know what it is.” Find a texture, a blanket, a smell, a safe person. Utilize a different tools that you have around you and notice the difference that it makes. If anything.
Nicholette Leanza:
Love that. Could you walk us through some quick mindfulness exercises that busy essential workers could do?
Quan Bernardine:
Absolutely.
Nicholette Leanza:
You mentioned a few already already. But yeah just offer [inaudible 00:06:58]-
Quan Bernardine:
Absolutely. So one of the things that we’re going to do is called the five-by-five breathing. And what we’re going to do is, like I said, get comfortable. So I’m going to adjust, right? I want you to drop your shoulders. Very good. You can stretch, let the body naturally do its thing. And I want you to rest your hands either on your heart or you could rest on your belly or on your lap, okay? So we’re going to use the breath and the body to help us anchor. So we’re going to inhale through our nose for five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one. We’re going to hold the breath. Five, four, three, two, one. And we’re going to release. Five, four, three, two, one. Good.
We’re going to do that two more times if that’s okay?
Nicholette Leanza:
Yes.
Quan Bernardine:
We’re going to inhale through the nose. Five, four, three, two one. You’re going to hold the breath. Five, four, three, two, one. You’re going to exhale, Five, four, three, two, one. Very good. Just notice your body throughout your breath. Notice anything that’s coming up, any thoughts that are coming up, and just allow the negative thoughts if anything to float like clouds, softening the jaws. Very good. Softening the face, whatever that means to you. Good. Just connecting with the body, noticing what’s coming up for you. And just noticing what it’s like to be present, to be aware. Very good. Very good.
We’re going to do the deepest breath we’ve done today. We’re going to inhale through our nose. Five, four, three, two, one. We’re going to hold the breath. Five, four, three, two, one. Exhale. Five, four, three, two, one. Allow your breathing to go back to normal. I just want you to notice your body. Just taking its time to honor you this morning, this afternoon, wherever you are. Exhale. And use this tool as often as you need.
And I want, as we get ready to leave this practice, I want you to think of what have I been needing today in this exact moment? It could be a word, a phrase. It could be something physical, like a hug. And I want you to imagine yourself receiving this. Notice what that does to the body. Very good. As we get ready to leave this practice this is just your gentle reminder to check in as often as you need, and you always have access to this space. Thank you so much for practicing. Come back into the space.
Nicholette Leanza:
Oh my gosh. Quan, you are so soothing and your voice is velvet. And when you said to loosen your jaw, I’m like, “How did she know my jaw was tense?” Wow. No, that was very helpful.
Quan Bernardine:
Good.
Nicholette Leanza:
And not even recognizing how much I was needing that for today. So appreciate that. And I’m sure our listeners will be like, “Lovely.” That’s wonderful. So this is probably something typical you might even take your own clients to in session.
Quan Bernardine:
Yeah, I do. Absolutely. I think especially people come in with different experiences and our nervous systems all can be activated. So just how you said noticing your own jaw. I notice my body, but I do it in session and help people regulate and for them to do it on their own. Not waiting until I’m holding all of this tension until I go to session. You have access to the breath. We’re all breathing, but there’s an intentional breath that’s happening that you can do on your own. Research shows that when you do these things just by 27% in minutes your nervous system can go back to its normal level of functioning, whatever that means to you.
Nicholette Leanza:
This is all so wonderful. Any other takeaways you’d like to share?
Quan Bernardine:
Yeah, one of the things I want to say is you are important you are the most important person ever. And no matter if you’re an essential worker or not, if you’re just a person that serves other people whatever capacity, you are important. And I want you to honor yourself in some way, some shape, or form this week. Find time, five minutes. They say if you don’t have five minutes to take time for yourself, that means you need to reorganize your schedule and make sure that you are the priority. Make sure that you are the priority. And if it feels overwhelming, restart. Restart. You have this. I want to encourage all of you out there that it is okay. We are all together and we can all work together. So I appreciate you all and enjoy your day.
Nicholette Leanza:
Quan, thank you so much. This was such an amazing conversation, very relaxing for me and I know this will be very relaxing for our listeners, so thank you and I’d love to have you back on.
Quan Bernardine:
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Nicky. You have a wonderful one.
Nicholette Leanza:
You too. I’d also like to thank the team behind the podcast, Jason Clayden and Juliana Whidden with a special thank you to Jason who edits our episodes. Thank you for listening to Convos from the Couch. Take care, everyone.
