Julie Potiker - National Age Without Apology Month

For June, National Age Without Apology Month, author and mindfulness expert Julie Potiker shares how practicing mindful self-compassion can help people be less critical and more accepting of themselves as they get older. Read on for details and information on booking her on your program! Make Peace With Your Older Self: Be Mindful of Self-Talk Around Aging Practicing mindfulness can protect our health and improve our quality of life as we age, research finds. Practicing mindful self-compassion can also help us be more accepting and less critical of ourselves and our appearance as we age, Julie says. “We owe it to ourselves to be mindful of our self-talk around aging and to give ourselves the gift of making peace with the aging process,” Julie says. A Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher from the University of California, San Diego, Julie is author of “SNAP! From Chaos to Calm and creator of SNAP, a simple four-step process anyone can use to calm anxiety, worry, and other troubling emotions. This includes negative self-talk — what Julie calls our “inner critic” — that tells us we are old and/or out of shape when we look in the mirror. Sound familiar? Try this: Soothing touch: Place your hands where you find it soothing, as a reminder that it’s hard to feel this way; you are giving yourself love, and the relief of oxytocin and endorphins being released will help calm your nervous system. I place both hands on my heart, but feel free to find whatever point works for you. Name the emotion: Sometimes this is a tangled mess, so see whether you can tease it apart. It might be embarrassment, shame, an icky feeling of vulnerability, or it could be sadness. Name it to tame it — so it’s out in the open and you can work with it. Act: Ask yourself these two questions: 1. What do I need to hear right now? Then tell it to yourself. 2. What do I need to do right now to shift my mood? Then choose what you can reasonably do in that moment. This could be positive self-talk, loving kindness phrases, or gratitude practice — anything to make a shift so that you feel the truth that you are enough just as you are in this moment. Praise: By being loving to yourself, as you would be to a dear friend, you are bathing yourself in compassion. You deserve it. “What you think changes your brain,” Julie says. “If you talk to yourself with gentleness and compassion and you take a couple of moments to savor the good feelings your compassionate voice brings up in you, that positive mental state rewires your brain. It is a simple practice with profound results.” If you would like to speak with Julie, contact me: Klaudia Simon Media Booker | WasabiPublicity.com 828.749.3200 east coast office | 828.817.4034 mobile [e-mail] Online Media Kit: JuliePotiker.OnlinePressKit247.com Public Site: MindfulMethodsForLife.com About Julie Potiker: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive certifications and teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Her new book is “SNAP! From Chaos to Calm.” Through her Mindful Methods for Life program offerings, Julie helps others bring more peace and wellness into their lives. Julie's first book, “Life Falls Apart, but You Don’t Have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos," is now available on audiobook. Learn more at MindfulMethodsForLife.com.