Imagine a world 🌎 where no one fights, there are no diseases, work places are a joy to go to, and no one really gets sick. Sounds almost like a utopia or a fantasy. There are so many things wrong in this world, and yet there is so much beauty if we can choose to focus on the good things.
When I was deciding on my major in my undergrad, I wanted to choose something that would add skills to my repertoire. I already was singing beyond college level as a freshman and was on a vocal scholarship. I decided I wanted to learn more dance through physical education K-12 teaching. I saw myself being able to teach PE because I had my first experience of it in a class setting my senior year in high school and it was fun.
You see I got to skip out on PE in junior high school because I was enrolled in band and choir. I got to skip out on PE in elementary up until 6th grade as I was home schooled. We were enrolled in the YMCA home school program including 3 days a week of gym/swim/gymnastics in grade school.
Then when I got to high school, I had a beautiful experience of aerobics my senior year at SLHS in Washington State. My teacher was shocked how much I enjoyed it and what a positive leader I was. She had a great student teacher, Tina Scansen (now Strelieski) that helped get me voted by the teachers by the end of the year as female PE Student of the Year. I loved her step aerobics class! It was my first time taking it and was so similar to the dancing I had done in the Music Company (my after school group that toured around the US). At that time, I also was voted by my peers as Choir Student Of The Year. I had a major decision to make when I went into college as to what route I wanted to take. I chose the one more challenging that I felt would open more opportunities for me long term.
College
I graduated in December of 2008 from Pacific Lutheran University with a Bachelor of Arts In Physical Education with K-12 certification. Through the No Child Left Behind Act, I could only legally teach health/fitness classes. Unfortunately, dance was taught in music classes in Washington. I was unknowingly thrown into teaching team sports, invasion games, and every year taught at different age levels. I don’t regret these experiences because they taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to even if I have no model of an example from previous experiences. I also learned there is no national curriculum standard for PE. What that meant for me teaching in low income school districts was that I created my own curriculum. As long as it was in alignment with the state standards, I could be free to be creative with my lessons.
First Year Teaching Experiences
I found myself creating curriculum for every age level Pre-K – High School health and fitness through the help of some resources and my own creative juices. I didn’t know it at the time but my grandmother’s brother (My dad’s uncle) was a professor at Oregon State University back in the day and published his own statistics/mathematics curriculum (curriculum design runs in the family 😊).
I soon found that other teachers were copying my work as lesson plans for their classes. One was at an alternative high school I was a long term sub at for about 3-4 weeks until I landed may first emergency sub job out in Rainier, WA in March of 2009. I wasn’t upset that teachers copied my work, I thought it was flattering. Here I am 22-23 years old and 40+ year olds are teaching my lessons to their students. That empowered me.
By the end of the school year in 2010 I was teaching at 2 elementary schools, Clover Creek Elementary was my main school at 2.5 days/week. It wasn’t full time because it was based on the budget for the school and also the population of the school. Principles have to make budget decisions and PE teachers are specialists that cover for the 30-60min planning hour for the main classroom teachers. I was grateful to be teaching at this school.
The principle was so kind and also managed us differently depending on our years of experience. He allowed me to present during staff meetings on the PEP grant material we had as PE teachers in the district and even wrote me a stellar letter of recommendation to get into graduate school when the economy was crashing and all of the teachers in my district with 4.99 years of teaching experience were getting their RIF (reduction in force- aka laid off) letters in the mail.
I knew I had to start applying for graduate schools because I couldn’t afford to pay my private school loans working part-time. It also was a time when no employees were hiring because the economy was so bad. I knew I would get a raise in pay that could help me cover my bills and open up opportunities for me professionally with a Masters. My mom advised me to get on a call with my Uncle Rob who is a retired clinical psychologist in California. He is very blunt and knowledgeable about educational financing. I remember our conversation so vividly.
Uncle Rob says : “What do you want to do when you’re done with school?”
Me: “I want to continue teaching but get paid more so I can pay my bills.”
Uncle Rob: “Whatever you do, don’t take anymore loans out. There are plenty of damn scholarships out there and graduate teaching/research assistantships to help fund your schooling and you don’t have to pay them back. Don’t take out any more f’ing loans” 😂
Me: “How do I find these graduate teaching/research assistantships?”
Uncle Rob: “Only apply to schools that offer those and that have a program that you are interested in spending 2-6 years on depending on if you go through and get your PhD”
Me: “Thanks Uncle Rob! This is SO helpful. I know exactly what I need to do now!”
In that moment I knew I had to decide if I wanted to get a masters in music/dance or exercise psychology because it was a class in my undergrad I really enjoyed learning about. After doing some research on the FAFSA (financial student aid in the USA), I found out you cannot get a MS or MA in music unless you have an undergrad in music. It saddened me but I kept moving forward.
So I applied to 3 schools. One was for nutrition to become a registered dietician, one was to get a middle school math endorsement (since I taught math my 1st year at the middle school as an emergency sub and the government has huge kickbacks to teach middle school math it made sense logically), and the one I was really excited about was applying to get a MS in exercise and sport psychology through Oregon State University.
I wanted to be accepted to OSU most because one of my favorite professors at Pacific Lutheran University, Dr Colleen Hacker had standards so high in her class and I learned so much that I actually convinced a business to sign up their 50 employees for gym memberships from one presentation where I summarized the data on the benefits of wellness based programs for employees and employers.
Work and School Helps You Prioritize Your Time and Be Efficient With Your Workflow
The business was a flagging dispatching company that I worked at while completing my undergrad in 2008-09: Advanced Government Services, CEO/Retired Founder – Susan Hearring. She has since sold the business and her son Dustin (my high school boyfriend 😂 runs it now with Arti O’Brien). If you’re needing dispatching services in Washington State, reach out to Dustin or Arti here. I knew I wanted to learn more about the field after I learned the power of sharing the benefits of it to the audience I spoke to.
Oregon State University
I got a call from the head of the department of OSU right before the end of the school year of my first year teaching in Bethel School District (Spring 2010) saying he had received my application and wanted to know why I was applying. I told him that I was struggling to pay my bills and couldn’t find a full time teaching job and wanted to open up my opportunities to gain full time employment. He didn’t really like that answer and advised me to stay working and gain more years of working experience. I was heart broken. Here I am knowing that all my colleagues and myself with 4.99 years of teaching experience or less are going to be laid off with no job openings in sight in the district and NO ONE IS HIRING ELSEWHERE and he tells me to not go back to school. 😢
A few weeks later I had gotten a letter in the mail from the graduate school department which was a different department at OSU. They had accepted my application and offered me loans of about $65k estimation for the next 2 years to become a student there. I knew I wasn’t taking any more loans out from the advice from Uncle Rob so I called the school and asked for a deferment.
A deferment is when you ask them to hold your acceptance for 1-year and you don’t have to pay the application fees again if you enroll in classes within one year. I had heard about deferments from my brother Josh because he had done that with PLU to pursue his music degree.
OSU called me back and asked on their survey why I was needing a deferment and I told them financial reasons. They noted it and less than a month later I got a letter in the mail saying they had an opening in their graduate teaching assistance department with an influx in international students from China and Malaysia and needed me to teach physical activity courses to their INTO program. I about peed my pants 👖!!!
I called the university to confirm what they said was true and that I’d be paid to go to school AND they’d give me a monthly stipend to live off of. Talk about miracle! They confirmed and I know this was through the grace of God because the department head for the major I was applying to, told me to go back to work and that he didn’t think I was ready for a masters program. God had other plans for me.
I confirmed with the head of the PAC courses, Ann Asbell that I’d be teaching classes that I enjoyed teaching most (her suggestion) 4 classes a week 2x/week for a total of 8 hours, including planning and also communication to the student in my classes (45 students/class for a total of 180 students a quarter). I had the summer off from teaching and classes and would be compensated $1,025/mo to live off of for 10 months for 2 years. Because I was enrolled in school, my student loans were on deferment and this provided me more income than when I taught at Clover Creek Elementary and the other school the year prior. Kind of sad to think about it, but I made do with what I had and I was SO grateful to have the opportunity to accelerate my career.
That fall of 2010 I moved to Corvallis, OR and lived in a quad-plex with 3 other girls. We shared the shower and kitchen and had our own face washing areas in our 8×8 rooms. It didn’t matter what the size of the room was. I was enrolled in grad school and didn’t have to pay! 💃 💃 💃
There were 3 of us in my same major working on our Masters degree and I believe 3 in the PhD program. Eris, Drew, and Me (MS), Zi, Alexis, and a really cool guy I am totally blanking on his name but he’s been published in many empirical journals. I was first introduced to mindfulness at Oregon State University through one of my lifetime friends and mentors whom I’ll talk later about in this blog.
Mindfulness Blog
This blog is about empowering you to use Mindfulness to help keep you level headed, be a better communicator, calm down your angst, and contribute more to your work and family. I hope you enjoy my writing. I really enjoy when you interact with me, ask questions, send me emails, and share it with your friends (if you find value in it). Keep reading towards the bottom if you’re a group facilitator and want to gain stronger skills in mindfulness based cognitive therapy and equipment free workout training for your patients/students/employees.
Restorative Powers Of Mindfulness
#1 Restorative Power: Identifying What It Means To Be Mindful and Use Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
MBCT It’s present focused therapy designed to help people with depression originally. It is empirically based (meaning approved by researchers as approved methods mostly at universities). It helps you be present focused.
I’d love if you’d check this article and share your thoughts, comments and questions below.
#2 Restorative Power: Knowing The Origin And Original Intention Can Support Your Mental Health Journey in the workplace, family, or in your own health
Where did MBCT Originate? Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn coined the term “Mindfulness” in the 70s. He created an 8 week program for people 4 days a week for 45 minute sessions of meditation. You can read about it in his book The Full Catastrophe Living. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀
I heard about MBCT from my friend Alexis in grad school (2010) that was using MBCT for her PhD Dissertation with wildlife firefighters in life or death situations. She is a consultant now and travels to different forest firefighter stations to train the leadership on MBCT to reduce the risk of death in that specific industry. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀
It’s a good practical method for anyone that wants to be more present focused. If you’ve read Dr. Kabat Zinn’s book, practice mindfulness, I’d love your thoughts, comments or questions below! ⠀
#3 Restorative Power: Practicing MBCT Is A Skill and Takes Time To Master – Keep It Simple⠀⠀
⠀⠀
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to practice MBCT is to buy a grape (just 1). Wash it off first. Hold it in your hand for a bit. Feel it on your fingertips. Then place it on your tongue. Don’t chew it just yet. Roll it on your tongue. What does it smell like? ⠀What does it feel like?…. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀
Now go ahead and chew it slowly. Feel the juices flow in and on your tastebuds. Is it sweet or tart? ⠀⠀
⠀⠀
Be in this moment. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀
If you notice your thoughts drifting, it’s normal and okay. Focus back on your breath and take slow deep intentional pauses. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀
When you are ready, go ahead and swallow the grape. Journal the experience of what you noticed and the thoughts that came up during the time. Make sure to be non judgmental as your thoughts are only thoughts. That is one way to practice MBCT. ⠀⠀
⠀⠀
I’d love your comments, struggles, victories, questions below! ⠀⠀
#4 Restorative Power: Knowing Exactly Who MBCT Can Help Is Healing When You Begin To Take Action
Who Can Benefit From MBCT? Anyone! MBCT has been empirically validated as a great method for patients with eating disorders, anxiety, depression, psychosis, and everyday people. Check out this article about it.
I want you to know that there is no such thing as perfection when it comes to MBCT. I have been practicing it since 2010 and I am no where near perfection. It’s perfectly okay too! The idea is to start practicing, increase your awareness, increase some gray matter, decrease your stress, and help transform yourself into an even kinder human being ready to take on the world and make a positive impact in your workplace-home-school-health.
There are days where I can tell I’m not being as mindful and it might be because I didn’t get a full night’s rest, or maybe there is something extra stressful going on personally or professionally. It is important to recognize the POVs (Potentially operant variables) that can affect your performance on that particular day and give yourself grace when needed. Remember to be kind to you as how you treat yourself is how you treat others.
#5 Restorative Power: No One Is Alone In This Journey. I’m Here To Support You As A Group Facilitator
⠀⠀
I’m excited to share with you the program I created for my patients that lived in a psychiatric hospital. The Move Happy® Facilitator Program is 16 weeks 4days/week 45-60min/sessions combining positive psychology, MBCT, journaling/ group discussion / and workouts with minimal equipment. It also includes a psychological questionnaire and fitness questionnaire I designed to measure progress throughout.
⠀⠀
I worked with adult patients so the language is geared towards adults, but can easily be adapted for any age level. I ran the program 3x and even had some of my colleagues cover for me when I had gotten a promotion at the hospital (so I know it’s duplicatable because they told me they loved teaching it)!⠀
⠀⠀
To the first 2 that buy my program today, I’m throwing in some free cool Move Happy® Swag. 🔥 Go here today and email me your name, contact info, and copy of your receipt, so I can mail you your swag personally! ⠀
I hope you enjoyed reading my long blog on mindfulness today. I wanted to educate you through practical strategies as well as my own personal experiences using MBCT. I am SO grateful to those that introduced me to MBCT as it helped me kept a level mind through grad school, the working world, going through relationship breakups, financial catastrophe, losing my father in the middle of it all and getting involved with the wrong kind of man and surviving! MBCT is just one psychological skills training that you can use to help you in just about any area of life. I encourage you to begin practicing it today if you haven’t yet started and reach out if you have any questions.
Updates On Move Happy®
I am so honored to announce I was on my first podcast interview last night for Joshua Lee, from Business Minutes out of Orange County, California. Check out the podcast episode here. Make sure to connect with Joshua if you’re a full time employee and growing your business simultaneously like me.
Last weekend I launched my social media management company, Erin Nicole Media® where I manage your social media content on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Snap/LinkedIn or I teach you my system to help you become efficient with your time if you’re working a full-time job like me.
Facebook had reached out to me about 1-2 months ago asking if I had hired someone to manage my content and I said no. They were impressed how much I was able to get accomplished and provided me some strategies to improve even more. We’re in conversations about possibly having me speak on stage as a small business owner whom has used Facebook to help grow her business (they own Instagram too). Their encouragement and a the 5-10 people that reach out to me almost daily asking for tips on their channel catapulted me to launch my company.
Within 1 day of announcing my soft launch, I had 6 consults on the books. I’ve got one company I’ll be working with in the next few weeks and have just 1 spot left until end of summer for content management and creation. I am looking to teach no more than 3: 1-day classes on my content marketing design system from now until the end of summer.
Since I am working full-time for an awesome company, Houzz.com and running 2 businesses, I don’t want to stretch myself too thin and will only do what I know I can be excellent in. If you’re looking for some support in either content creation or learning my system to create your own content marketing material, email me and include your social media tags/profiles so I can see what you have to start with.
Content creation and management is a 12-month agreement. If you want to learn my system, it’s either online or in person for 1-day 4-6hours depending on team size and you get a recording of the training at the end as well.
For content creation, I am looking to partner with a small business owner that is struggling to grow their social media, you contribute to your local/global community through your business or philanthropy efforts, and you understand that building a brand online takes a minimum of 12-months.
I interviewed 15 companies last summer and fall and the average cost I was quoted from every company was between $1,500-3,000/mo to do social media posts 5x/week and create ads for me (but I had to pay additional ad spend of $500-1000/mo) for 12-months with no guarantee they’d help me close sales. I wasn’t at an income bracket in my day job to dive in so I decided to dive deeper into learning how to market myself by writing my own content.
I started with 0 followers on my Instagram business page last summer and now have over 3,300. I also recently was mailed a gift of some gear for being an influencer. I have over 7 months of recordings of my podcast interviews because people are attracted to my mission and vision.
I will continue to roll my own content marketing, write my own blog, and post my own podcast interviews because I really enjoy it. I’d rather teach you than manage yours for you because you’ll be the best story teller of your own brand. However, if you’re too busy to manage your content hit me up via email and let’s set up a complimentary consult.
Pricing for content creation varies depending on how frequent you want me to post for you and if you just want text/pics or video coaching ($249.97-$1,499.97/mo). Since this is a new business for me I am looking to partner with people that are willing to give me stellar reviews at a modified price compared to the current market. Email me for a consult then we’ll go over pricing after the consult if it makes sense for your needs.
Pricing for the 1-day system training of my methods is $1,997 for in person + accommodations and travel or $997 online if I do not have to take any time off of work. If you have a team of 1 it is the same price, if you have a team of 5-10 I do not charge more. Any team over 10 employees will be negotiated pricing. Email me to set up a consult. By the end of the 1-day event you will have a plan of action and be able to start implementing my system to grow your brand and business immediately.
I look forward to connecting with you and supporting you on your journey!
Please follow me on all social media: Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Twitter, LinkedIn, Podcast, and email newsletter.
And as always… Don’t forget to tell someone you love them today 💋
Erin Nicole, Creator of The Move Happy® Movement 💃 🏃♀️ 🤸♀️ 🧘♀️ 🙏
Recent Comments