I'm thrilled to dedicate my first podcast episode of 2025 of the My Curious Colleague Podcast to Front Line Agents in the Contact Center.
🌟 This week, I sat down with @Beryl Krinsky, Founder of @B.Komplete to explore mindfulness practices and their role in supporting mental health, especially in high-stress environments like contact centers.
From navigating the challenges of corporate wellness to launching her own school, Beryl brings a wealth of experience and wisdom. Together, we discussed simple yet impactful ways to incorporate mindfulness into daily routines—whether you're a contact center agent, a business leader, or just someone seeking balance.
💡 Highlights include:
🔹 The "Five Senses Practice" to instantly reduce stress.
🔹 The surprising health benefits of mindful breathing.
🔹 Practical tips to fit mindfulness into a busy day—even in 10-second intervals!
This episode is perfect for anyone curious about making mental wellness a priority in 2025. Let’s start the year with intention and simplicity!
📖 Listen to the full episode and let me know in the comments: How do you practice mindfulness in your day-to-day life?
#mindfulness #podcast #consumerrelations
TIP: mark this episode about midway thru and work thru a mini mindfullness exercise with Beryl guaranteed to make you feel good...!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Denise (00:00):
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with
me, Denise Venneri. I am a 20year practitioner in the
consumer engagement space havingworked for 2 large CPG
organizations. My intent here isreally to share best practices
with particular focus around thespecialist and analyst skills
(00:20):
and to give back to this greatcommunity because CPG CX rocks.
Hello, my curious colleagues. This week, I'm
curious about tips and ideas tosupport mental health through
mindfulness in the contactcenter and beyond. And to help
(00:42):
me do just that is my formercolleague of mine from
Campbell's, Beryl Krinsky.Welcome to the podcast, Beryl.
Beryl (00:53):
Hi, Denise. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really
happy to be here.
Denise (00:57):
Of course. It's so good to see you after all these after
all these years. And I thinkwhat I especially remember about
you, of course, I've beentracking you on LinkedIn, is
your such very interestingbackground. And one day, I would
like, you know, see you in thisdivision or this, excuse me,
function at Campbell's andloved, you know, working with
(01:18):
you there. And the next minute,you'd be in a different
function, and then it justreally was like an early, I
think, tribute to what they callrock climbing today.
And I think it really it workedwell for you. So why don't you
let everybody know how did youget to hear?
Beryl (01:35):
Oh, gosh. That's a long story. I know we don't have all
day, but
Denise (01:39):
I should say briefly, top line.
Beryl (01:42):
Sure. Sure. I I like I'm gonna actually share something
that one of our our fellowformer colleagues at Campbell's
said to me and I thought it wasvery thoughtful and it was as if
she kinda knew what I was doing.From a very, very early age, I
knew I either wanted to run abusiness, start a business. I I
(02:03):
just had that vision, businessleadership.
And so when I had theopportunity to join Campbell's,
I started off in productdevelopment, which was awesome.
I loved it. But I wanted to keepgoing into different departments
to teach myself about businessleadership. And then I picked up
a job in project management,which which was I actually for
(02:25):
it was in supply chain, but itwas project management. And then
when I finished my MBA, I movedover to marketing.
And so I kinda got from conceptand development into managing
the project, into marketing andunderstating consumer behavior.
And then I quit. And I started BComplete which is my first
(02:50):
business which is corporatewellness. My background is in
nutrition, food, and let's see,also just general health and
wellness. And I thought abouthow can I make a big impact in
the world?
And I met with some healthinsurance brokers, and they
said, you know, if we were you,and we we had your background,
(03:13):
we would do corporate wellness.And I started looking into it.
And it was incredibly rewarding.I loved working with populations
of employees, and helping themwith their stress reduction,
their mental well-being, theirdisease prevention. I hired a
team of wellness professionals,and we were able to help
(03:35):
thousands of people.
And it was so rewarding. As Iwas getting that business off
the ground, I worked with manystudents, students in nutrition.
And they were at differentschools and internships, but
regardless of where they werefrom, they kept asking me the
(03:55):
same question. Beryl, how didyou start your business? Where
did you learn about sales andmarketing?
How did you understand theinsurance world? And it was like
a light bulb went off above myhead and I thought I need to
start a school to teach studentshow to become registered
dietitians and also businessowners and entrepreneurs. And
(04:17):
thus, my second business wasformed and accredited in August
of 2020. It was one of the mostproud moments of my life. And I
have a school as well.
Denise (04:30):
Does that have the same name?
Beryl (04:32):
It's called the complete business dietetic internship. I
kept the word complete with a kbecause that's really my core
branding. And I thought usingthe word business would help
attract students who werelooking for that entrepreneurial
type of dietetic internship.
Denise (04:51):
Yeah. Well, you know, I remember those days, corporate
wellness. And I remember a womanat Campbell's who, like, started
managing the fitness center. Doyou know who I'm talking about?
And then she went on to expand,and I it was like the first time
I think I saw someone who was incharge of my physical wellness,
(05:12):
you know, starting to tap intothat and and beyond.
And now I'm even further reallyenjoying this recent focus on
employees or anybody's mentalwell-being, especially at work.
I don't know what triggeredthat. Probably COVID maybe kinda
caused that to, to have more ofa focus. And one of the reasons
(05:36):
I love that is, of course,myself as an employee, but also
I've been working with a contentcenter agents, we'll call them.
They also monitor social mediaand all the the sexy channels.
But, you know, we all know, andI've seen firsthand, how that
role is so important andchallenging, and at times can be
(05:59):
very stressful. Just the theidea that most of my work during
the day would be recorded andthen evaluated and calibrated
would would be enough to, like,you know, get my anxiety going.
So I really have to, you know,give it to them for what they
do. So what can we do here tosort of emphasize maybe things
(06:20):
they've heard? You know, what isthis idea of mindfulness, and
what are some of the differenttimes in your day or different
behaviors that you canincorporate?
Beryl (06:31):
Yes. It I think that the pandemic brought to life what
was already going on. Becausemental health challenges affect
at least 1 in every 10 adults,which I think it's even more
than that. We don't realizealways how much stress that
we're carrying on ourselvesuntil sometimes it's too late.
(06:54):
And stress expresses itself inchronic disease and also some
underlying diseases where youmight be fully functioning, but
you're still struggling.
And mindfulness is an ancientphilosophy that has a ton of
relevance in our day to day now.It seems like an easy concept.
(07:17):
However, when you when you firststart doing it and even after
you've been doing it a while, itcan be really, really hard.
Because when we are mindful, itmeans we are fully engaged in
the present moment. We chatterin our own heads all day long.
And we don't even realize thatwe're having that inner dialogue
(07:41):
because it's so consistent. Wealso tend to multitask and we're
checking our email and we'retalking to someone at the same
time or we're on social mediaand we're writing it, you know,
it's like a 100 things going onat the same time. When we stop,
take a breath, and focus on onething at a time, it helps reduce
(08:04):
our stress. It helps us to startto feel more centered and
grounded. Practicing mindfulover time has huge health
benefits.
But just at the baseline, itmakes us happier. And I love
teaching mindful practicesbecause the cool thing is you
(08:25):
can do just like a 1 or 2 minutemindful practice, and you're
still gonna get a benefit fromit.
Denise (08:35):
I'm all in then. Sim simplistic simplicity and the
benefit. You know, we all wannabe happy. And just a side story,
I did not mention this to you. Ihad started the year saying, oh,
I'm gonna be one of those peoplethat have a word of the year and
then, like, you know, dowhatever around that, or is it,
(08:57):
you know, watching all themovies from the 19 forties?
Whatever it is. And I had pickedI'm laughing because I ended up
not executing at all. It wasbeing more mindful. That's how I
framed it up. And I I realized Ididn't really know what I was
saying.
I thought it meant, like, Iwould stay focused on just a
conversation with my son. Like,I knew that was, like, maybe a
(09:19):
part of it, but that that was asfar as I went. And then things
happened, and I never got backto it. So I am selfishly looking
forward to some of these tipsand tricks and kind of where
mindfulness and that wordmeditation may become together.
Meditation scares me.
(09:39):
Mindfulness, for some reason, Iseem to be more open to, and I
think it's just lack ofknowledge. So let me let you do
your thing. Can you share any ofthe tips or any of the further
maybe, scientific evidence youmight have up your sleeve to
help our contact agents?
Beryl (09:58):
Definitely. Let's start out with something called the 5
senses practice. And this issomething that everyone can do
every single day. If you startto feel overwhelmed or you start
to feel stressed out or even ifyou simply wanna get your day
started on a really positivenote, this is something you can
do. Okay.
(10:19):
So what I always say is, first,make sure that you are
comfortably whether you'reseated or standing, make sure
both feet are on the floor, thatyou're grounded wherever you
are, and just start by taking anice breath in through your
nose. Exhale through your mouth.Let it all go. Just do that
(10:42):
again. Breathe in through yournose.
Exhale through your mouth. Inthe 5 senses practice, we become
mindful by focusing on one senseat a time. For our first sense,
let's start out with our vision.I want you to focus on one
(11:08):
object in the room where you'relocated. It might be something
you didn't notice today or couldbe something that you enjoy
looking at.
And for call it the next 10seconds, simply look at that
object and try to be fullypresent with looking at that
(11:29):
object.
Denise (11:43):
Okay.
Beryl (11:44):
Now we're gonna focus on our sense of hearing. I want
you, for the next call at 10seconds, simply listen. Okay.
(12:13):
Next, we're going to move on toour sense of smell. Maybe you
have lotion on your skin or yourfabric softener on your clothing
or maybe you have nice a nicesmell like of your hair or
something like that.
So simply identify something ormaybe you have a candle.
Identify something that youwanna smell and just focus on
(12:38):
that aroma for the next 10seconds. Now we're going to move
(13:03):
on to our sense of touch. Youmight be wearing a cozy sweater
or maybe a shirt that feels niceor maybe you have a pen,
something that you can just feeland just focus on however it
feels. Last but not least, we'regonna move on to our sense of
(13:40):
taste.
If you have a beverage or a mintor food, take a bite or a sip
and allow the food or thebeverage to be in your mouth for
a moment. I want you to be fullyaware of how it tastes, what's
the temperature is, and then howit feels as you swallow. And I
(14:15):
did it a little faster than Inormally would for the for the
podcast. However, I wouldrecommend when when people do
this practice to try to do eachsense for 30 seconds if you have
time. 30 seconds.
And then if it's hard to quietyour mind, which that is normal,
(14:39):
if it's hard to quiet your mindwhen you're doing this, I want
you to keep taking those deepbreaths. Just breathe in,
breathe out as you're looking atthe object, as you're smelling
the aroma. Just keep breathingand eventually your chatter will
start to soften. Though andplease don't be hard on yourself
(15:02):
when you start doing this. If itis really hard, that means
you're human.
That's normal. It you kinda haveto practice doing it. You have
to keep doing it just likeexercise. You can't do it once
and be healthy. You have to keepdoing it.
And so after you kinda get intoa little routine, you train your
mind to calm down and it'seasier to get into these mindful
(15:27):
exercises.
Denise (15:32):
I almost just fell asleep. I'm so relieved. That's
great. Oh, I bought a podcast.You know, there's just even my
first one.
I'm hunched over here when westarted because I wanted to get
close to the speaker I have anew setup here. When we just
started the first sentence,which was the breath, I intuit
instinctively, my shoulders wentcompletely down if you're
(15:55):
looking on this on YouTube. Ithink there's value just in
that. Mhmm. Let me get a littleinto the tactics because I'm
trying to you know, now I'mgetting anxiety.
How do I count to 30? Is that mymy cell phone I have to count?
You know, I have to put thetimer on, and is that bell gonna
get me anxious? So and then Ialso already forget the 5 senses
(16:21):
Mhmm. That you mentioned.
So I'm thinking maybe we couldjust get an acronym going right
now. What were they? It was likebreath, then it was
Beryl (16:31):
Oh, so Acronym
Denise (16:32):
on the 5 sense site?
Beryl (16:34):
Yeah. So, like, think about maybe, like, go, like, go
start so start at the eyes. Soeyes let's see if I remember the
order I went. And then you cango really whatever order. So
eyes, and then I think I dohearing next.
So eyes Okay. Hearing, thensmelling Mhmm. Touch, taste.
Denise (16:59):
TT. It smells barrel. No. It doesn't. But that would
be something I'd recommend.
Like, whatever order you like,Is the order really critical
that people go down their faceor anything? Okay. Was the first
one breath, breathe in?
Beryl (17:15):
Oh, well, when you're starting just to
Denise (17:18):
get ready?
Beryl (17:19):
Yeah. It's just to get ready. So anytime you're gonna
move into a meditation orpracticing mindfulness, it's
usually recommended that you,you know, When we're really When
we're really really stressedout, we often tend to have short
(17:41):
breaths like, you know, andwe're not like exhaling when
we're really stressed, but whenwe have, yep, exactly shallow
breaths, We're not getting thebenefit, the physical and the
mental benefit. So when you dotake those long inhales and long
exhales, you start to changeyour parasympathetic response
(18:04):
and you start to feel relaxed.Research has shown that
practicing these, you know,these good focused breaths for
about 5 minutes a day, you know,every day of the week, you can
reduce your blood pressure byjust doing that.
It's really powerful. Wow. Mhmm.
Denise (18:26):
So you said 5 minutes a day. So quick math. Let's say
it's 30 seconds per sense, 5senses. You know, a minute and
50. We'll add 10 seconds on forthe breath, so that's 2 minutes
to do the whole thing once.
I think I'm doing this right.And then you just wanna do that
at least twice a day or 3, 3times a day. Maybe it's, like,
(18:52):
before when you wake up or Mhmm.In the morning, then definitely
maybe before you go to bed, thisis what I'm feeling as you're
talking.
Beryl (19:02):
And
Denise (19:02):
then I think the trick is how do you especially if
you're an agent and, you know,think if if things are busy,
which which is good, you justneed to be able to carve that
out. And maybe if it's, youknow, in between contacts that
you need to care for, let's sayyou're on
Beryl (19:19):
the
Denise (19:19):
phone, maybe you could fit like, can you can you break
it up and do 2 of the senses?You're still, like, getting some
benefit there?
Beryl (19:28):
Yeah. That's that's what I was thinking for someone whose
job is you're almost always onthe phone. If you only have
about 10 or 15 seconds, thenpick 1¢ and do that. Just do
that for 10 or 15 seconds.You're still gonna get a little
you'll still feel a little morerelaxed.
Denise (19:50):
Okay. I'll be honest. I was struggling a little bit with
the site. Like, I I was lookingat a saying I have on the wall
over here, and I was juststruggling. Again, this is why I
have anxiety because I need toget into the details.
So when I'm looking at it, like,what am I saying to myself? The
shape of the picture is square.How it makes me feel or the
(20:15):
attributes or whatever comes tome, Beryl, in your in your
opinion.
Beryl (20:20):
Okay. So here here's the challenge. You're not supposed
to be thinking anything. Youryour your job is to observe the
thing. It's to just look at it.
Look at it. And and if it helps,if it, you know, if it's really
hard to just look at something,which I get it. Again, we're
human. You can observe thedetails of it. You can say, I
(20:44):
was looking at a framed picture.
The frame is gold, you know, butyou wanna start to just look at
it, which I know it's it'sreally hard. It's hard.
Denise (20:58):
And I think, like, anything that is, like, a muscle
to build, as they say. The moreyou do something, the more I
think it becomes more easier. Iwould like to think yeah.
Beryl (21:11):
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I would say to, you know,
meditation and mindfulness,there are 100, maybe even
thousands of ways to practiceit. If something doesn't
resonate with you, you don'thave to force yourself.
You just try something else. If,like, for example, if you've
tried, you know, looking atwell, I'll just share. There's a
(21:35):
really cool, I think it's reallycool, candle flame meditation.
So that's like a mindfulmeditation where you focus all
your attention on a candleflame. And that is a type of
practicing mindfulness thatpeople will do for hours, which
(21:57):
I'm like, oh my gosh.
And I've I've done it probablyup to, like, 20, 30 minutes. And
it's hard. You have to build upbecause focusing all of your
attention on a candle flamemeans you don't have all that
chatter in your head. You arefocusing on the candle flame.
Now if you try to do that andyou're really struggling, then
(22:21):
that's probably not the bestpractice for you.
But maybe you really liked,focusing on the beverage or
maybe you really liked focusingon the aroma or whatever it was,
then you do that.
Denise (22:36):
Right. Right. So be be gentle with yourself. You had
said something like that. Ithink that's they're great words
of wisdom.
We are getting to the end. So Ihave 2 2 more thoughts and
questions. One is, as a starter,if I was somebody, which I may
just do, is to play this sectionof the podcast or I'll upload it
(22:57):
to YouTube and just do your sortof mini 5 senses. It wasn't 30
seconds. Right?
At one point, you know, we wedidn't want it to be that long
for this purpose, but somebodycould just start doing that for
the 1st couple of days just toget engaged and hear your voice.
Because I was doing it with you.I look crazy, but I think that's
(23:19):
an idea. That's one idea. Andthen the other thing is how else
can people learn more about whatyou do and, you know, who you
are and what you're all about?
What are some of the contactpoints?
Beryl (23:33):
Well, our website has some really helpful information,
especially on the blog. I wouldsuggest going to the be complete
blog to get some follow-upinformation. And let's see. For
our for our corporate wellnessservices, we do guided
(23:53):
meditation workshops and stressreduction workshops and
different activities to helpbring this into a person's day
to day.
Denise (24:05):
Yeah. Well, it's noble work, and I'm I'm grateful for
you. I'm not surprised that you,are doing so well in an area
that you really love. Yeah. Sohappy for you.
Beryl (24:17):
Thank you.
Denise (24:18):
Thank you again for being on the podcast, Burrell.
Beryl (24:22):
Oh, it was my pleasure. That flew by. My pleasure. That
was fun.
Denise (24:29):
You have been listening to the My
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with
me, Denise Venneri. I am a 20year practitioner in the
consumer engagement space havingworked for 2 large CPG
organizations. My intent here isreally to share best practices
with particular focus around thespecialist and analyst skills
(00:20):
and to give back to this greatcommunity because CPG CX rocks.
Hello, my curious colleagues. This week, I'm
curious about tips and ideas tosupport mental health through
mindfulness in the contactcenter and beyond. And to help
(00:42):
me do just that is my formercolleague of mine from
Campbell's, Beryl Krinsky.Welcome to the podcast, Beryl.
Beryl (00:53):
Hi, Denise. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really
happy to be here.
Denise (00:57):
Of course. It's so good to see you after all these after
all these years. And I thinkwhat I especially remember about
you, of course, I've beentracking you on LinkedIn, is
your such very interestingbackground. And one day, I would
like, you know, see you in thisdivision or this, excuse me,
function at Campbell's andloved, you know, working with
(01:18):
you there. And the next minute,you'd be in a different
function, and then it justreally was like an early, I
think, tribute to what they callrock climbing today.
And I think it really it workedwell for you. So why don't you
let everybody know how did youget to hear?
Beryl (01:35):
Oh, gosh. That's a long story. I know we don't have all
day, but
Denise (01:39):
I should say briefly, top line.
Beryl (01:42):
Sure. Sure. I I like I'm gonna actually share something
that one of our our fellowformer colleagues at Campbell's
said to me and I thought it wasvery thoughtful and it was as if
she kinda knew what I was doing.From a very, very early age, I
knew I either wanted to run abusiness, start a business. I I
(02:03):
just had that vision, businessleadership.
And so when I had theopportunity to join Campbell's,
I started off in productdevelopment, which was awesome.
I loved it. But I wanted to keepgoing into different departments
to teach myself about businessleadership. And then I picked up
a job in project management,which which was I actually for
(02:25):
it was in supply chain, but itwas project management. And then
when I finished my MBA, I movedover to marketing.
And so I kinda got from conceptand development into managing
the project, into marketing andunderstating consumer behavior.
And then I quit. And I started BComplete which is my first
(02:50):
business which is corporatewellness. My background is in
nutrition, food, and let's see,also just general health and
wellness. And I thought abouthow can I make a big impact in
the world?
And I met with some healthinsurance brokers, and they
said, you know, if we were you,and we we had your background,
(03:13):
we would do corporate wellness.And I started looking into it.
And it was incredibly rewarding.I loved working with populations
of employees, and helping themwith their stress reduction,
their mental well-being, theirdisease prevention. I hired a
team of wellness professionals,and we were able to help
(03:35):
thousands of people.
And it was so rewarding. As Iwas getting that business off
the ground, I worked with manystudents, students in nutrition.
And they were at differentschools and internships, but
regardless of where they werefrom, they kept asking me the
(03:55):
same question. Beryl, how didyou start your business? Where
did you learn about sales andmarketing?
How did you understand theinsurance world? And it was like
a light bulb went off above myhead and I thought I need to
start a school to teach studentshow to become registered
dietitians and also businessowners and entrepreneurs. And
(04:17):
thus, my second business wasformed and accredited in August
of 2020. It was one of the mostproud moments of my life. And I
have a school as well.
Denise (04:30):
Does that have the same name?
Beryl (04:32):
It's called the complete business dietetic internship. I
kept the word complete with a kbecause that's really my core
branding. And I thought usingthe word business would help
attract students who werelooking for that entrepreneurial
type of dietetic internship.
Denise (04:51):
Yeah. Well, you know, I remember those days, corporate
wellness. And I remember a womanat Campbell's who, like, started
managing the fitness center. Doyou know who I'm talking about?
And then she went on to expand,and I it was like the first time
I think I saw someone who was incharge of my physical wellness,
(05:12):
you know, starting to tap intothat and and beyond.
And now I'm even further reallyenjoying this recent focus on
employees or anybody's mentalwell-being, especially at work.
I don't know what triggeredthat. Probably COVID maybe kinda
caused that to, to have more ofa focus. And one of the reasons
(05:36):
I love that is, of course,myself as an employee, but also
I've been working with a contentcenter agents, we'll call them.
They also monitor social mediaand all the the sexy channels.
But, you know, we all know, andI've seen firsthand, how that
role is so important andchallenging, and at times can be
(05:59):
very stressful. Just the theidea that most of my work during
the day would be recorded andthen evaluated and calibrated
would would be enough to, like,you know, get my anxiety going.
So I really have to, you know,give it to them for what they
do. So what can we do here tosort of emphasize maybe things
(06:20):
they've heard? You know, what isthis idea of mindfulness, and
what are some of the differenttimes in your day or different
behaviors that you canincorporate?
Beryl (06:31):
Yes. It I think that the pandemic brought to life what
was already going on. Becausemental health challenges affect
at least 1 in every 10 adults,which I think it's even more
than that. We don't realizealways how much stress that
we're carrying on ourselvesuntil sometimes it's too late.
(06:54):
And stress expresses itself inchronic disease and also some
underlying diseases where youmight be fully functioning, but
you're still struggling.
And mindfulness is an ancientphilosophy that has a ton of
relevance in our day to day now.It seems like an easy concept.
(07:17):
However, when you when you firststart doing it and even after
you've been doing it a while, itcan be really, really hard.
Because when we are mindful, itmeans we are fully engaged in
the present moment. We chatterin our own heads all day long.
And we don't even realize thatwe're having that inner dialogue
(07:41):
because it's so consistent. Wealso tend to multitask and we're
checking our email and we'retalking to someone at the same
time or we're on social mediaand we're writing it, you know,
it's like a 100 things going onat the same time. When we stop,
take a breath, and focus on onething at a time, it helps reduce
(08:04):
our stress. It helps us to startto feel more centered and
grounded. Practicing mindfulover time has huge health
benefits.
But just at the baseline, itmakes us happier. And I love
teaching mindful practicesbecause the cool thing is you
(08:25):
can do just like a 1 or 2 minutemindful practice, and you're
still gonna get a benefit fromit.
Denise (08:35):
I'm all in then. Sim simplistic simplicity and the
benefit. You know, we all wannabe happy. And just a side story,
I did not mention this to you. Ihad started the year saying, oh,
I'm gonna be one of those peoplethat have a word of the year and
then, like, you know, dowhatever around that, or is it,
(08:57):
you know, watching all themovies from the 19 forties?
Whatever it is. And I had pickedI'm laughing because I ended up
not executing at all. It wasbeing more mindful. That's how I
framed it up. And I I realized Ididn't really know what I was
saying.
I thought it meant, like, Iwould stay focused on just a
conversation with my son. Like,I knew that was, like, maybe a
(09:19):
part of it, but that that was asfar as I went. And then things
happened, and I never got backto it. So I am selfishly looking
forward to some of these tipsand tricks and kind of where
mindfulness and that wordmeditation may become together.
Meditation scares me.
(09:39):
Mindfulness, for some reason, Iseem to be more open to, and I
think it's just lack ofknowledge. So let me let you do
your thing. Can you share any ofthe tips or any of the further
maybe, scientific evidence youmight have up your sleeve to
help our contact agents?
Beryl (09:58):
Definitely. Let's start out with something called the 5
senses practice. And this issomething that everyone can do
every single day. If you startto feel overwhelmed or you start
to feel stressed out or even ifyou simply wanna get your day
started on a really positivenote, this is something you can
do. Okay.
(10:19):
So what I always say is, first,make sure that you are
comfortably whether you'reseated or standing, make sure
both feet are on the floor, thatyou're grounded wherever you
are, and just start by taking anice breath in through your
nose. Exhale through your mouth.Let it all go. Just do that
(10:42):
again. Breathe in through yournose.
Exhale through your mouth. Inthe 5 senses practice, we become
mindful by focusing on one senseat a time. For our first sense,
let's start out with our vision.I want you to focus on one
(11:08):
object in the room where you'relocated. It might be something
you didn't notice today or couldbe something that you enjoy
looking at.
And for call it the next 10seconds, simply look at that
object and try to be fullypresent with looking at that
(11:29):
object.
Denise (11:43):
Okay.
Beryl (11:44):
Now we're gonna focus on our sense of hearing. I want
you, for the next call at 10seconds, simply listen. Okay.
(12:13):
Next, we're going to move on toour sense of smell. Maybe you
have lotion on your skin or yourfabric softener on your clothing
or maybe you have nice a nicesmell like of your hair or
something like that.
So simply identify something ormaybe you have a candle.
Identify something that youwanna smell and just focus on
(12:38):
that aroma for the next 10seconds. Now we're going to move
(13:03):
on to our sense of touch. Youmight be wearing a cozy sweater
or maybe a shirt that feels niceor maybe you have a pen,
something that you can just feeland just focus on however it
feels. Last but not least, we'regonna move on to our sense of
(13:40):
taste.
If you have a beverage or a mintor food, take a bite or a sip
and allow the food or thebeverage to be in your mouth for
a moment. I want you to be fullyaware of how it tastes, what's
the temperature is, and then howit feels as you swallow. And I
(14:15):
did it a little faster than Inormally would for the for the
podcast. However, I wouldrecommend when when people do
this practice to try to do eachsense for 30 seconds if you have
time. 30 seconds.
And then if it's hard to quietyour mind, which that is normal,
(14:39):
if it's hard to quiet your mindwhen you're doing this, I want
you to keep taking those deepbreaths. Just breathe in,
breathe out as you're looking atthe object, as you're smelling
the aroma. Just keep breathingand eventually your chatter will
start to soften. Though andplease don't be hard on yourself
(15:02):
when you start doing this. If itis really hard, that means
you're human.
That's normal. It you kinda haveto practice doing it. You have
to keep doing it just likeexercise. You can't do it once
and be healthy. You have to keepdoing it.
And so after you kinda get intoa little routine, you train your
mind to calm down and it'seasier to get into these mindful
(15:27):
exercises.
Denise (15:32):
I almost just fell asleep. I'm so relieved. That's
great. Oh, I bought a podcast.You know, there's just even my
first one.
I'm hunched over here when westarted because I wanted to get
close to the speaker I have anew setup here. When we just
started the first sentence,which was the breath, I intuit
instinctively, my shoulders wentcompletely down if you're
(15:55):
looking on this on YouTube. Ithink there's value just in
that. Mhmm. Let me get a littleinto the tactics because I'm
trying to you know, now I'mgetting anxiety.
How do I count to 30? Is that mymy cell phone I have to count?
You know, I have to put thetimer on, and is that bell gonna
get me anxious? So and then Ialso already forget the 5 senses
(16:21):
Mhmm. That you mentioned.
So I'm thinking maybe we couldjust get an acronym going right
now. What were they? It was likebreath, then it was
Beryl (16:31):
Oh, so Acronym
Denise (16:32):
on the 5 sense site?
Beryl (16:34):
Yeah. So, like, think about maybe, like, go, like, go
start so start at the eyes. Soeyes let's see if I remember the
order I went. And then you cango really whatever order. So
eyes, and then I think I dohearing next.
So eyes Okay. Hearing, thensmelling Mhmm. Touch, taste.
Denise (16:59):
TT. It smells barrel. No. It doesn't. But that would
be something I'd recommend.
Like, whatever order you like,Is the order really critical
that people go down their faceor anything? Okay. Was the first
one breath, breathe in?
Beryl (17:15):
Oh, well, when you're starting just to
Denise (17:18):
get ready?
Beryl (17:19):
Yeah. It's just to get ready. So anytime you're gonna
move into a meditation orpracticing mindfulness, it's
usually recommended that you,you know, When we're really When
we're really really stressedout, we often tend to have short
(17:41):
breaths like, you know, andwe're not like exhaling when
we're really stressed, but whenwe have, yep, exactly shallow
breaths, We're not getting thebenefit, the physical and the
mental benefit. So when you dotake those long inhales and long
exhales, you start to changeyour parasympathetic response
(18:04):
and you start to feel relaxed.Research has shown that
practicing these, you know,these good focused breaths for
about 5 minutes a day, you know,every day of the week, you can
reduce your blood pressure byjust doing that.
It's really powerful. Wow. Mhmm.
Denise (18:26):
So you said 5 minutes a day. So quick math. Let's say
it's 30 seconds per sense, 5senses. You know, a minute and
50. We'll add 10 seconds on forthe breath, so that's 2 minutes
to do the whole thing once.
I think I'm doing this right.And then you just wanna do that
at least twice a day or 3, 3times a day. Maybe it's, like,
(18:52):
before when you wake up or Mhmm.In the morning, then definitely
maybe before you go to bed, thisis what I'm feeling as you're
talking.
Beryl (19:02):
And
Denise (19:02):
then I think the trick is how do you especially if
you're an agent and, you know,think if if things are busy,
which which is good, you justneed to be able to carve that
out. And maybe if it's, youknow, in between contacts that
you need to care for, let's sayyou're on
Beryl (19:19):
the
Denise (19:19):
phone, maybe you could fit like, can you can you break
it up and do 2 of the senses?You're still, like, getting some
benefit there?
Beryl (19:28):
Yeah. That's that's what I was thinking for someone whose
job is you're almost always onthe phone. If you only have
about 10 or 15 seconds, thenpick 1¢ and do that. Just do
that for 10 or 15 seconds.You're still gonna get a little
you'll still feel a little morerelaxed.
Denise (19:50):
Okay. I'll be honest. I was struggling a little bit with
the site. Like, I I was lookingat a saying I have on the wall
over here, and I was juststruggling. Again, this is why I
have anxiety because I need toget into the details.
So when I'm looking at it, like,what am I saying to myself? The
shape of the picture is square.How it makes me feel or the
(20:15):
attributes or whatever comes tome, Beryl, in your in your
opinion.
Beryl (20:20):
Okay. So here here's the challenge. You're not supposed
to be thinking anything. Youryour your job is to observe the
thing. It's to just look at it.
Look at it. And and if it helps,if it, you know, if it's really
hard to just look at something,which I get it. Again, we're
human. You can observe thedetails of it. You can say, I
(20:44):
was looking at a framed picture.
The frame is gold, you know, butyou wanna start to just look at
it, which I know it's it'sreally hard. It's hard.
Denise (20:58):
And I think, like, anything that is, like, a muscle
to build, as they say. The moreyou do something, the more I
think it becomes more easier. Iwould like to think yeah.
Beryl (21:11):
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I would say to, you know,
meditation and mindfulness,there are 100, maybe even
thousands of ways to practiceit. If something doesn't
resonate with you, you don'thave to force yourself.
You just try something else. If,like, for example, if you've
tried, you know, looking atwell, I'll just share. There's a
(21:35):
really cool, I think it's reallycool, candle flame meditation.
So that's like a mindfulmeditation where you focus all
your attention on a candleflame. And that is a type of
practicing mindfulness thatpeople will do for hours, which
(21:57):
I'm like, oh my gosh.
And I've I've done it probablyup to, like, 20, 30 minutes. And
it's hard. You have to build upbecause focusing all of your
attention on a candle flamemeans you don't have all that
chatter in your head. You arefocusing on the candle flame.
Now if you try to do that andyou're really struggling, then
(22:21):
that's probably not the bestpractice for you.
But maybe you really liked,focusing on the beverage or
maybe you really liked focusingon the aroma or whatever it was,
then you do that.
Denise (22:36):
Right. Right. So be be gentle with yourself. You had
said something like that. Ithink that's they're great words
of wisdom.
We are getting to the end. So Ihave 2 2 more thoughts and
questions. One is, as a starter,if I was somebody, which I may
just do, is to play this sectionof the podcast or I'll upload it
(22:57):
to YouTube and just do your sortof mini 5 senses. It wasn't 30
seconds. Right?
At one point, you know, we wedidn't want it to be that long
for this purpose, but somebodycould just start doing that for
the 1st couple of days just toget engaged and hear your voice.
Because I was doing it with you.I look crazy, but I think that's
(23:19):
an idea. That's one idea. Andthen the other thing is how else
can people learn more about whatyou do and, you know, who you
are and what you're all about?
What are some of the contactpoints?
Beryl (23:33):
Well, our website has some really helpful information,
especially on the blog. I wouldsuggest going to the be complete
blog to get some follow-upinformation. And let's see. For
our for our corporate wellnessservices, we do guided
(23:53):
meditation workshops and stressreduction workshops and
different activities to helpbring this into a person's day
to day.
Denise (24:05):
Yeah. Well, it's noble work, and I'm I'm grateful for
you. I'm not surprised that you,are doing so well in an area
that you really love. Yeah. Sohappy for you.
Beryl (24:17):
Thank you.
Denise (24:18):
Thank you again for being on the podcast, Burrell.
Beryl (24:22):
Oh, it was my pleasure. That flew by. My pleasure. That
was fun.
Denise (24:29):
You have been listening to the My
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