Workshop – Science-based Self-care

Science-based self-care: How modern neuroscience informs whole-health practices to balance work, life, and relationships that won’t burn you out! 

Anna Rapson

Tuesday, March 4^th 3pm – 5pm

Cost: $25 regular/ $10 student & retiree;  Max capacity: 50

Learning to manage our stress and care for ourselves is essential to staying engaged with what we value and care about. Yet, how do we do so when there’s already so much to fit in? Sustaining a work-life balance can be difficult, and managing stress healthily can be even more challenging.

Since we can’t always change what’s happening around us, we can learn to change how we relate to what’s happening inside us. Our thoughts, emotions, and sensations are data for how we respond (or react!) to external circumstances.

Neuroplasticity confirms we can adjust maladaptive patterns and rewire our brains in a way that best serves our physical, emotional, and mental health. Adaptive strategies can replace problematic or unhelpful patterns with repetitive practice. Psychoneuroimmunology and interpersonal neurobiology emphasize the importance of paying mindful attention to the inner workings of how we move through pleasant, neutral and unpleasant experiences.

This workshop will incorporate modern neuroscience and the science of mindfulness to inform practical, evidence-based applications for managing stress, creating time for worthwhile self-care, and improving intra- and interpersonal relating. In it, we will cover:

• “Psychological safety” – what it is, why it’s essential, and how to create it for a functional (vs. dysfunctional) workplace
• How to cope in the midst of feeling anxious, or even powerless, over what’s outside of your control
• What are mind states and what is essence?
• Renouncing “judging, comparing, and fixing” mind states
• Attending to your well-being from the inside out
• Revisiting imposter syndrome – how to work with self-doubt and/or comparative judgement
• Relational health in tense settings
• Identifying, interrupting, and changing patterns that contribute to frustration or unease

No annoying or awkward icebreakers included! Ultimately, the purpose of this workshop is to empower you to experience greater satisfaction in the interconnection of your professional and personal lives.

Anna Rapson is credentialed as a Clinical Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist, as well as a Certified Mindfulness Teacher. She’s worked in mental health for 25 years, and as a clinician for 20. She says her true passion has been to accompany people through the thick trenches of life’s inevitable struggles, but optional suffering, in our shared humanity. In her own version of work-life balance, Anna currently works in private practice with adults, couples and small groups, and as an adjunct instructor at Miles Community College in Miles City, MT. She also presents on wellness topics in professional and community settings. Additionally, as a mother to a young adult and teen daughters, sustainable self-care measures are a must! Anna is an avid practitioner and proponent for evidence-based practices that enhance a sense of purpose, fulfillment, joy and ease.