As a year filled with anxiety and division comes to a close, many want to make lasting positive changes in their lives, not just hollow resolutions.

From meditation to spirituality, we'll look at simple ways to incorporate the practice of mindfulness into your daily life.

That and more.

Stay with us as we dive into Your South Florida.

Hi, I'm Pam Giganti.

Welcome to Your South Florida.

It's that time of year again, where many of us take stock of our lives and decide to make personal changes for a fresh start in the new year.

But studies show only 8% of Americans who make a New Year's resolution actually sticks to it, with 80% failing by the start of February.

This is usually due to the pressure of setting unrealistic goals and expectations.

As part of our recent town hall, I was joined by a panel of experts to look at small ways to set yourself up for success in the new year and for everyday mind, body and soul.

You know, mindfulness is a term that most of us have kind of come to know and associate maybe with yoga and meditation, but it's really moved to the forefront of the overall mental health conversation.

So Knellee, I want to start with you.

For those who really aren't that familiar with the mindfulness movement, what is it?

Tell us what mindfulness is, and is it a practice or is it more than that?

I like to describe it as a practice, a state and a trait, right?

So the practice of mindfulness is the practice of being aware in the present moment, intentionally and with an attitude of non-judgment, curiosity, openness, and a kind of gentleness of spirit as well.

And that definition is a definition that I use a lot.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is one of the American godfathers, if you will, of mindfulness, uses that definition.

And there are like three components in there.

There's the awareness, right?

The attention, which is kind of like the attention of the mind, and then the intention of the heart, of how we are being aware in this moment.

What is the intention that I'm holding in the present moment?

And the attitude that I'm bringing, right?

The mindfulness attitude.

It could be openness, it could be curiosity, there are several mindfulness attitudes.

So it is a practice.

It is all sorts of practices that we do to cultivate that state of awareness.

And it's also what we called a trait.

So that's a term from neuroscience, if you will, because what we know is that even if we think we're not very mindful, the more we practice intentionally, we can actually increase our trait level of mindfulness.

In other words, we can train our brain to be more mindful over time with consistent practice.

Very much like teeth brushing.

If you brush your teeth every day, you prevent cavities.

So that's how I like to describe mindfulness, for those who are experimenting.

Yeah.

I love that idea of training your brain and getting into the habit and kind of training your brain to maybe operate in a different way.

Thaddeus, you've been practicing mindfulness for years.

Starting back when you were with the NYPD.

I can only imagine how you needed to decompress after working in the police force.

Talk about the impact that mindfulness has had on you and in your life.

Yes, I've had the experience, that joy and exuberance of being in a space where I can give from abundance and from overflow of positive energy, and from a peaceful mind and body with self-compassion and compassion that extends to others, circles, family, friends, and community.

But I've had that interrupted too.

I've had the loss of that peace, the loss of that sense of well-being, compassion for self and distancing from others.

So when I'm in a place of peace and composure, and I experience life where I can be of service and I have a peaceful contribution to the people around me.

So while starting in the NYPD, it really challenged me.

It challenged me to step up and practice and to re-engage on numerous occasions.

And when I left New York to come to Florida, I came with an experience of being transformed and healed, and wanted to continue that.

And then from that place of peace and comfort and composure, I wanted to share it with others.

Rev.

Skip, some people turn to religion or spirituality to help them cope with the stressors of life, we know that.

Most especially, maybe if they've lost a loved one or they've lost their job, very stressful situations.

So talk about the mental health benefits of spirituality and faith.

I love this conversation about spirituality and mindfulness and mental health, because I don't believe it's a compartmentalized experience, it's integrated.

So when you are in the practice of building your spiritual tools or building your spiritual experience, it will help you with your mental health.

So if you've lost someone, or you have been in a state of dis-ease, your practice will bring you back to what I call the place of center, where you feel calm, you feel a sense of love.

And spirituality is not about finding God or finding religion, it's about, where do you fall in your spirit?

And you can be aware of, that there is something going on within you that feels uncomfortable.

When you become aware of it, then you have the ability to begin to transform to the place where you want to be.

So it's an ongoing practice.

It's something that you don't achieve and it's, "Ta-dah, I'm there!"

'Cause there is no there to get.

You just continue to practice every day, to find yourself back into a sense of good mental health.

It's like practicing anything, right?

If you want to play volleyball or you want to play the piano, you gotta work at it.

Absolutely.

So you gotta work at this, yeah.

Before we continue, as part of our partnership with the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, students from Ferguson High School stopped by the Miami Book Fair recently, and they talked to some locals there about mindfulness and how and why they practice.

Take a look.

I have studied mindfulness and I try to listen intently.

That is part of my mindfulness.

I try to get rid of distractions so that I can truly hear what people are saying, not just with their words, but with their body language.

And I look into people's eyes.

That's how I practice mindfulness.

I think that until I became more aware of slowing down and listening, it would have been impossible for me to get into public office.

It's really essential to be able to be present and listen to people.

I do practice mindfulness.

I spend at least five minutes every day writing, just total free association.

And that's all I require of myself, just five minutes every day, spending on the page, not inhibiting myself at all, just allowing whatever comes out to come out.

I do practice mindfulness.

I think that nature is the only way that we can just find ourselves and find our interior voice.

I like going for walks very early in the morning.

I also try to listen, to listen to things that are more than the music and the noise.

When I'm walking on the street, I live in a busy city, a busy part of Miami, so I try to ignore the traffic noise, the cars, the alarms, because yes, at that time, there's all that, but also a bird is singing and the waves are crashing.

And I try to put my mind in that.

And I think that makes the day completely different.

I try to practice mindfulness every day.

I try to meditate and do yoga and I connect more to my mind.

I think it more, it centers you, if you're attention more to your mind and your body, you're making little... You're paying attention more to yourself rather than external sources.

And like sometimes being alone and without technology, and just like having peace of mind is really important every day.

Yeah, I try to meditate at least three to five minutes every single morning.

I do this by saying positive reinforcement to myself to kind of set myself up for the day, and just to make sure I could be my best self going forward.

It just helps me be stronger and helps me commit to my own goals and stay true to myself.

And it also helps me keep a positive mind for when things might be getting a little bit tougher.

Wow!

Really great to hear from a lot of those folks, and interesting to see so many people practicing mindfulness, putting away the cell phone, trying to get out into nature and just center themselves.

There are a lot of benefits as we heard from some of those folks.

And it all sounds good, but maybe people don't know necessarily how to get there.

So Rev.

Skip, you have a great quote on your website.

It says, "Connect with your spirit.

Transformation is an inside job."

That sounds amazing.

What do you mean by that?

Everything that you are looking to create in your own life, it's already within you.

I truly believe that.

We get to become aware of what it is that we truly want in our life, and we become aware of what practices is right for us.

I love the video, it was a lot of talk about yoga, a lot talk about meditation, but not everyone connects with yoga.

So what is the mindful practice that's right for you?

So I do a walk in nature every Monday morning.

That's the first thing I do, is get out and walk in the area that I live in.

And I just listen and listened to the birds, and I pray and meditate on what I'm hearing and feeling the heat here in Florida on my back.

But then there's days I do yoga and there's some days I sit quietly and do meditation.

So the inside job is finding out what is right for you, what is in alignment with what you are calling forth for you, as a mindful practice?

Yeah, what works for you?

It's not one size fits all.

That's what I'm hearing you say.

Yeah.

Well recently, the Your South Florida crew actually went out and spent the morning with Thaddeus and Knellee for eight mindful Broward group meditation at Dr.

Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park on Dania Beach, to experience mindfulness and meditation firsthand.

Take a look.

Part of my role with Diversity Aquatics Community Engagement and Programming Director, is to create partnerships with organizations and individuals to bring people to the water.

And part of my deeper role is to see the water as a healing space.

So over the years, while working with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, and becoming a faculty member, and then having a relationship with AHAM Education, we decided to start collaborating and bringing our practices to this historically black beach.

It started during the pandemic because we didn't have access to our normal pools.

We did come to the beach monthly, but nothing as developed and as established as what we have now as a community of practice.

Rest in silence.

When we meet as a community to practice, everything is very intentionally designed.

One of our intentions is to make sure that we acknowledge history, and that we honor the ancestors who are responsible for us having a safe space to practice.

That we ground ourselves in the past, present and the future, as a way to, just to recognize that even though we're here for self care when we practice, we're really here to practice for the whole world.

We're healing this space, we're healing the lives of those who suffered that came before us, but we're also healing the future because we're creating a legacy by practicing together.

We intentionally wanted a space that would allow us to move through different pieces.

So the land acknowledgement, we do on the bridge, 'cause the bridge is a symbol of connecting the past with the present, and of projecting our practice of healing now into the future.

And then we a practice called mindful walking.

The mindful walking is a practice that we do in silence, and it really helps us to connect to nature through our senses.

It also is a way to continue what we started on the bridge with the land acknowledgement, which is to ground our hearts and our minds in the present moment.

Many people come here with all kinds of anxieties.

So the mindful walk is really a way to ground and to prepare for the practice.

Then once we get to our practice location, which again was very intentionally chosen, we sit or stand in a circle, and we do a combination of a mindful movement, and then we do a meditation practice.

Many of our members look forward to this weekly reset, this opportunity to come back together as a community to express something that's still going on or something new.

And be able to walk away and feel restored and reset to take the challenges that the week ahead they may be facing.

Or the collective challenges that are still unrelenting.

We're still within certain climates where there's distress, upset, losses, collectively.

And I'd like you to put in your mind as we start the image of a match.

Teaching during the pandemic has been something that has been a bit of a struggle.

Not because I don't understand the technology or I don't love the students, but just because we just see so much of the trauma affecting our students.

And I was experiencing what's called secondary trauma.

Because of that, I was feeling burnt out.

Feeling that, "You know what, maybe this is my last year."

I was just looking for some way to feel a sense of healing, and a sense of replenishment and rejuvenation.

So what the practices did, is they allowed me to build a sense of resilience with myself.

So no matter what's going on around me, no matter what the children are experiencing, personally, and of course something I take on, I still have the capacity and the strength to continue.

Now I'm working on becoming a trained facilitator.

And what's great for me is that I can bring the practices to my students, not necessarily by facilitating the practices to them.

These are not spiritual practices, these are just mind, body based practices.

But it's my sense of resilience and my ease in dealing with the challenging circumstances, that I'm bringing to the students.

We're being the examples we want to see in the world.

We want our children, our families, our communities, to see these spaces, these natural healing environments as welcoming and as part of their lifestyle.

We want them to feel that they can come here and be restored.

What we are doing is creating a safe space and a brave space where we can practice together, share, witness our own suffering, and at the same time heal from our suffering.

That recognizing that there's something very powerful about practicing in community that keeps us going, but also keeps the legacy of this movement going.

Wow, just watching that makes me feel peaceful.

Listening to the ocean, seeing everybody together.

So let's talk about that for a moment.

Mindfulness, I think a lot of us know and understand, it can be an individual experience.

But we saw here that having a supportive community is really important to the whole practice and to enhance your experience.

So Knellee, talk about that.

You keep talking about the safe space, the welcoming environment.

Why is that so important and what does that look like?

The safe space is about setting a container, is a terminology we use in the mindfulness world.

But it's about creating a space where all people feel like they belong.

And you mentioned something before we started about how diverse the group was.

That's also intentional.

It's not accidental.

We're very careful about being aware of setting up a space that is trauma sensitive.

That is inclusive of, in terms of the language that we use, in terms of how people are able to express themselves in that space, in terms of what the practice means to them.

Because mindfulness doesn't have to look like cross-legged with your fingers together, right?

In a particular pose.

It's just the awareness.

And we are that awareness.

So we can bring that awareness to just about anything.

I think once that sense of inclusion, inclusion in terms of how we practice, and inclusion in terms of the humans that are practicing, is kind of invited in that space.

And I think intuitively as humans, once we connect in that way, we're able to do that.

Then people can have their own experience in community.

And at the same time, have a community experience that we can all feel and sense even when we're together.

Rev.

Skip, many people feel lost and alone during the holidays, at the beginning of the year, there's been so much uncertainty as we know with COVID.

So let's talk about spirituality and religion, or religion.

Many people are connected to a church or they go to a temple which can help.

So what is your advice to those who are longing for, and we've been talking about this, connection with others, and maybe connection with faith?

Sure.

So first of all, Knellee and Thaddeus, the work you're doing, it's incredible.

And going back to the beach in the group, in a community, that's what it's all about.

That's what we do at CSL for .

We come together as a community every Sunday, and we meditate together, we pray together, we sing together, we love together, because that is how we are meant to be.

So I'm very fortunate to be a part of a center that truly believes how important it is for us to have a family, have connection.

And one of the first books I've ever read about mindfulness was Thich Nhat Hanh's, "The Miracle of Mindfulness".

And he talked about walking meditation, walking in a group of people together as one.

This idea of the oneness that we move together, we live together, we breathe together.

That is our natural DNA.

That is our state of being.

And we were not meant to isolate.

Although we had the opportunity to isolate during this pandemic, to really go within, to really connect with who we really are so that when we emerge from this pandemic, we're able to now serve.

How can I serve the greater community?

So I believe all this is in a divine order, it's in a plan.

And I believe that we can all find our way of finding our community again, and how we can show up in our community for the benefits for all people.

Yeah.

Thaddeus, I promised you at the top of the program, when you mentioned that you were a swim instructor, that we were gonna get to that.

So we know you're active, you talked about being an athlete, you're a triathlete, you scuba dive.

You believe mindfulness and physical health really go hand in hand.

So talk to us about the idea behind the creation of Blue-Mindfulness.

What is that?

There's a science called the blue mind, and it talks about how the body and the mind and spirit can be connected to the water in a way that showed measurable results.

And when I first came to Florida, as a triathlete and a swimmer and a runner, I could push through pain.

And I've experienced that pushing through to develop toughness.

But then I've also experienced when I added mindfulness.

I've experienced the joy of this, the workout, the inspiration of the workout.

It wasn't devoid of some kind of pain, but it felt more like discomfort.

I embraced the pain.

And so I brought an awareness to what I was doing instead of thinking of, I want to be over with this workout, I didn't wanna be anywhere else but where I was, in that moment with the experience of the, if it was discomfort.

But then it actually was rewarding.

It was a level of reward.

But then I also found out that just because I could handle toughness, that some of my students could not.

If they had anxiety, stress, trauma, and especially those related to water.

And some of that was generational and historic.

They were not even conscious of the source of why they were so anxious around water.

And as we started to bring other practices to an adult learn to swim program that we were doing, we brought qigong, yoga, pilates, and we were working with an organization called Black Girls Run.

And it was a collection of professional black women who are athletic, in many respects accomplished.

But the water was that place where they felt unsafe, incompetent and stressed.

And we were able to bring them through a process from fear to fun, from fun to fit, from fit to fantastic.

And it was about playing.

We actually introduced play as part of that experience.

Not looking at water as something you just got to swim across to get to the other side.

And then we would do mindful practices to prepare us as a group, so we were in it together.

We were part of the experience together.

And they felt supported, and they felt part of a community.

But all the stressors of life can be difficult for us grownups.

It's tough for kids and teens as well.

And for them, it can really be overwhelming.

So they often don't have the tools to handle all of the emotions and the anxiety that come with growing up in the age of COVID and social media and with school shootings.

So after the tragic shooting in Parkland in 2018, local school districts ramped up measures to help students address their mental health needs.

So, Knellee, I know a lot of your work focuses on instilling mindfulness in kids.

Your organization, AHAM Education, partner with Broward County public schools for their mindfulness initiative.

So talk a little bit about that.

How are these programs helping kids and teens in the community?

We, over the last several years, have been part of this collective of organizations, including The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, , Inner Explorer, many other groups.

And together collaboratively, we've helped the school district develop their mindfulness initiative, where educators are trained to first embody the practice.

So in the video you saw the young lady talking about the way in which she shows up in the classroom.

So that's the first layer.

How am I in relationship to myself?

Am I showing up stressed?

Am I aware of my vulnerable?

Am I taking care of myself?

Am I present?

The philosophy is all adults in the building need to be in some way aware of the intention to be mindful, and to learn how to practice.

The second component is providing direct instruction to young people, giving them an opportunity to practice every day.

What I'm really proud to say is that the Broward County school district has decided to have a 10 minute mindfulness mandate, so that every day every child is exposed to mindfulness for 10 minutes a day.

It's a work in progress, but it's an amazing initiative.

And then there's this other piece that is around parent and community engagement.

Because it's great to practice within the school day, but what's happening when children go home?

In many cases, children are now teaching their parents to practice mindfulness.

The initiative in the school district is connected to the Mind Body Resiliency Coalition, which I co-chair with a colleague.

And together, what we're really doing is shifting the culture in our community.

So our goal together with the school district and community organizations is to create a mindful Broward.

And we have the community of practice that you saw, the beach meditation is actually part of that bigger sort of movement towards making mindfulness a habit in our community.

Before we go, I kind of wanna go round robin here with the panel.

Give us some parting words of advice on how to avoid failed resolutions, and how can we set ourselves up for success going forward in the new year?

Knellee, I'm gonna start with you.

So I would say that if we live in the present moment, then there is no past and no future.

I try to remember that so that whenever I fall off the horse, this moment is my new year resolution.

So I can just begin again.

And so having that beginner's mind, which is what we call it, is I think the most incredible gift, as mindfulness is the most forgiving practice.

You can begin again and again and again and again.

Thaddeus, how do we pick ourselves up if we're falling off the horse again and again?

Well, to make it very inclusive of the people in your lives, to let them know that and what you're up to, and to engage and to have their support in the journey, and their enthusiasm about whatever you might be up to, whatever you say you want to accomplish.

And understand that it begins today, and you can take small steps.

Small steps starting today.

You don't have to wait.

You can start building that momentum, so by the time the new year's is here, you're already starting to sail through and have that kind of a routine in place.

Beginner's mind, baby-steps, I love all these nuggets of wisdom.

Reverend Skip, bring us home.

What is your best advice.

My number one advice is stop setting resolutions.

Stop!

It don't work.

Amen.

There's something to be resolved here, but let's talk about intention.

Intention is the vibration and energy we use to transform and to manifest our life.

So we set the intention to connect with our spirit.

And here's what I truly know, that it's not about how many times you fall down, it's about you get back up.

So that we fall down, isn't that a part of this spiritual journey?

We learn from our so-called failures, but we learn to rise up and we become better.

So we look at the divine experience, it's all in it.

So we fall, we get up, we fall, we go to sleep, we wake up, we wake up, we wake up, and hopefully we're gonna be more awake than asleep.

I believe that is a part of the human experience here.

You can watch the full town hall on our Facebook page @YourSouthFL.

From all of us here at Your South Florida, have a happy and healthy new year.

And thanks for watching.