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Ms. Jill Garvin, the psychological health director at the 102nd Intelligence Wing, speaks to Samantha Sandland, LICSW, NASM-CPT about tools available such as mobile apps, aroma therapy and others that can contribute to wellness. Samantha is an independent clinical social worker and a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer. Samantha owns and operates Champs Psychological Services, LLC, a Rhode Island-based agency which provides mental health, personal training services, and performance coaching, in both individual and group settings. https://champspsychologicalservices.com/
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GARVIN: hello everybody this is Jill Garvin the director of psychological health for the 102nd intelligence wing today i am joined by Sam Sandland she's been with us before she's a licensed clinical social social worker and personal trainer and i'll have her um say a little bit more in a few moments but today we want to talk a little bit about some apps that are really helpful we're going to talk about essential oils music even color and just how different things impact our nervous system and different things work for different people so we're going to touch on that and welcome back sam i'm glad that you're here and tell us a little bit more about what you do again how you introduced yourself before
SANDLAND: sure yeah i'm glad to be back and i'm glad we're on zoom and i can see you yeah it's super exciting um so like jill said i'm a licensed clinical social worker and personal trainer so i own a business out of rhode island called champ psychological services and my whole mission is really to bring attention to the intersection between physical health and emotional wellness i think that really encapsulates who i am
GARVIN: perfect and we talked talked before about the brain and that was really interesting and we'll talk a little bit about that so maybe we'll start out with some apps that we have both found helpful maybe for ourselves or for other people that we work with um what app would you like to bring up first i'll let you go
SANDLAND: so i will bring up um you know a Fitbit an apple watch so if you have one of those components one thing that i really like to do is to monitor my heart rate and so if you have an apple watch or even a Fitbit there's um apps on it that i can trigger you to take some deep breaths and also you can look and see what your heart rate is because sometimes for me i look and i'm like whoa i'm really stressed out i need to provide myself x y and z and then i look and i see oh it went down a little bit um so that's the first one that i really think is cool because we we have so much on our phone already um so yeah
GARVIN: i love that idea um because i know sometimes with my watch when i'm sitting for too long it'll remind me to get up and walk around yeah but i love the idea of of having a reminder to take a couple deep breaths that's wonderful
SANDLAND: yeah and even to learn to see what your resting heart rate is because everyone's body's built different so even just looking and being like okay my resting heart rate is this over this is is the more knowledge the better in my opinion
GARVIN: yeah absolutely and if we do have a high heart rate then there might be some other things or other apps that we can use to help calm our heart rate and our nervous system we both like insight timer and that is an app that you can put on your phone i use that it's got hundreds of different teachers everything from you know meditation anxiety sleep uh different subjects i really like that one i think you use that too
SANDLAND: yes yeah and i like because sometimes people can find the word meditation really scary and intimidating and so it's really important to note that even on insight timer there's short components you don't have to commit yourself to a 15 minute
GARVIN: there’s like three minutes really quick and music music i i will listen to some of the sleep type music when i go to bed at night and i also when i started practicing meditation i used insight timer because there's a little bell on there and you can time so i started with two minutes then three minutes and worked myself up to 20. so that's a helpful little tool too it has like a little absolutely tight sounding bell so definitely check that out the other one that i want to mention i mention this all the time is COVID coach and a lot of people i think have downloaded this on their phones it's a DOD product and it has just about everything in it it's not just COVID related it's broken up into four sections and i'm just going to quickly go over one and one section has managed stress the other is learn the other is mood check and the other one has resources so it has everything from virtual museum tours to strengthening your relationship and the one i'm going to highlight today is manager stress and i'm just going to quickly go through what what they have listed and you can also save them under your favorites and it also gives you challenges so under managing stress it has ambient sounds body scan change your perspective so some um cognitive behavioral type stuff and connect with others daily rituals deep breathing finding meaning meaning grounding and indoor activities inspiring quotes mindfulness muscle relaxation observing thoughts relationship tools okay wow there's a whole bunch more i'm not even gonna go but anyway that just gives you an idea of what is just in that one section of managing your stress so if you want to try to do some deep breathing or grounding exercises and grounding exercises for those of you that don't know what that is that is something for example when you are meditating making sure that both of your feet are on the floor and really bringing in all your senses what you're hearing smelling feeling the type of temperature that is is on your body and it just can help us uh get back into the moment and and ground ourselves is there anything you wanted to you want to say about that
SANDLAND: yeah i i i also want to honor the fact that you know some people who are in the military might be um overwhelmed by the idea of meditation and so one thing that's really great about grounding exercises is that you already do them right so you do them in your job you do them in your role um so for example when i speak to some of my clients i actually have them do a grounding exercise when they're stretching or when they're getting ready to weight lift because there's grounding is just a way to connect to who you are um and so your craft and figure out what works for you um just like jill said it's all the senses so for example if i had a client who i was really working on grounding exercises because of relationship stress i would have him or her focus on when they are getting ready to exercise so okay you're warming up you're you're aware of your muscles what does it feel like what part of your body so i just want people to hear that even if you don't have an app or you are overwhelmed by the concept of meditation you already are successful in grounding because you're here yep that's right so i just wanted to bring that point up
GARVIN: yeah and even something as simple as just taking one deep breath right and be very very grounding right any other apps that you can think of right now i know we were just going to probably mention those few
SANDLAND: um i i love um the note section so if we think of community um if we're yeah it's like on uh on the iPhone there's a note notes app and you can connect to somebody else so let's say you and your buddy um are really going to work on some particular part of your emotional wellness um you can share a notes app and connect to another person and so then you can kind of track any area of growth even if it's an exercise area um so i i thought of that earlier jill but i just think the idea that when we're suffering we're not suffering alone um and just bringing connection wherever you can
GARVIN: absolutely i haven't heard of that i will actually check that out and again that is something that we talk a lot about is is connecting i love the idea of accountability having kind of an accountability partner i just recently started doing some zoom calls with a couple of friends each week and we both we all make kind of a commitment on the things that we want to work on for the week um and so it just reminds me a little bit of that where you have a little bit of accountability and some connection so thank you that's that's a great suggestion and the other thing i wanted to talk about um are essential oils and i know a lot of people when they hear aromatherapy might think that it's sort of a pseudoscience or something kind of out there but there actually is a lot of evidence-based evidence-based research around what what aromatherapy and essential oils can do and you know it stimulates the smell receptors and the nose and our strongest sense is smell and i'm sure all of us can relate to you've been walking or you walk in somewhere and you smell a certain scent and it reminds you of someone or something or your grandmother or something from childhood so i actually looked up on John Hopkins because they're actually using essential oils and and many hospitals they are too i've seen a couple documentaries but um but aromatherapy you know is does have a therapeutic benefit i actually started using them in my office this last year i have a diffuser and i've been trying them myself just to see yeah just to give it a try you know i'm always open to anything and um but when you inhale aroma when you hail these essential oils the scent molecules travel from like your olfactory nerves directly to the brain and um impacts you know the amygdala and the emotional center of the brain so i made tim smell a few that i keep in my office he was just thrilled to death i can't tell you how excited he was but one i've been using in the morning is called cheer and it's got is that the one you like it is um yeah so the cheer and some of the morning ones i use are citrusy and have some different blends so i every week i'm taking one oil and trying to learn a little bit about it and then the other one i love is a roll-on is called adaptive and um it's a very sort of i think a grounding smell and then the other one i brought is called anchor and it's really interesting that the citrus oils when you pour them in a diffuser they pour out very fast and then the grounding ones are a lot slower so it you know it's a whole process but i can definitely tell a difference with my mood and and before i meet with folks in my office i will um use the adaptive um it kind of helps ground me and and so i can be mindful with folks so it's something that uh that i've definitely um wanted to try to see if there was any um i don't know any any benefit to it so i have noticed for myself and they're using it for different types of diseases and it's supposed to help again depending on the kind that you use everything from anti-inflammatory anxiety depression and insomnia and appetite and many other things so yeah if you know somebody that is into the oils you can certainly look up and do your own research but but do try a couple you know in the morning um you know there are things that can brighten your mood and there are some calming ones too so i've really enjoyed that
SANDLAND: yeah sure and i um interestingly enough just started my essential oils again a few days ago um i was cleaning out my closet that i have in my bathroom and i was like oh i forgot about all these and um i was using vetiver yeah yeah um and one thing that i found interesting is that so we have a we have a bunch of different um oh my gosh my mind's going blank um so we have smell touch sound what are other sensations that we have uh site yeah taste taste yep and then we have another one that's actually called proprioceptive which is how our body relates to the world so it's what holds us to be balanced um and so what's interesting for me around essential oils that i noticed last night actually is it hit my smell grounding nervous system but really it also helped my sight so i am really stimulated by what's going on in my environment um and so seeing the the smoke or steam come out of the diffuser was super regulating to me um and i love the ones that have the different colors those are really oh yeah yeah yep yeah so i hear you there and even like even if you just try it in a store if you're in a store they have samples so you can just like walk up to it um twist it and smell it um and kind of see what it does for you it's not going to cure things but we're just trying to provide you some more tools in your toolbox um because i never tried aromatherapy until someone suggested it
GARVIN: yeah so either or actually when i've gone to some yoga classes or i've gotten a massage they often will use oils and i immediately feel relaxed or or grounded so i i knew that something felt something felt good about it but um i've been doing a little bit more around that so good for you thank you and we were also well speaking of you you were talking about sight when you see the diffuser uh we were talking a little bit about um colors you know from what you paint on your on your walls to colors that you might wear that you find that that are that may be relaxing to even light bulbs now tim and i were talking a lot about the these um smart apps is that what you would call it smart apps that have um you know google and and i guess amazon you can have different shades of color in your house and use those to also impact your nervous system for a calming effect or maybe to help you wake up in the morning i don't have anything like that but i'm certainly drawn to different colors so i love the idea of of using colors in your environment as well for for kind of a nervous system reset or soothing technique yeah
SANDLAND: yeah it's a good point and and one thing that's interesting is i really have never thought of light i have you know a few clients who use light therapy for mood but for me personally i've never assessed what happens when lights are dimmer and not dimmer so it's something i'm gonna i'm gonna
GARVIN: exactly check it out i yeah and lived in Germany for a couple of years and i bought my first light therapy lamp when i was over there because i moved over there in October and it was just gray and rainy you know seasonal affective disorder definitely hit me and so i would do like 10 minutes of that light in the morning it's supposed to help with vitamin d which helps with mood as well but yeah definitely play around with again like if you walk into to get a massage or a yoga studio and it's nice and dim or there might be candles or certain colors you notice a change in your body and how you respond to that so i think the last thing we were going to talk about is music like how music can also soothe or excite the nervous system can help us be more productive it can help us sleep at night i for one love my Spotify i know that um apple Tunes has uh there's different um products out there like pandora and stuff like that but i love making playlists for when i'm doing something creative or if i'm running you know i have a certain playlist if i do i have found when i put on classical music or certain types of piano music i just instantly calm down it's very soothing uh so yeah do you use any any music?
SANDLAND: yeah yeah and i have um a i really like classical music but i'm very particular about the song so on my playlist i only have six songs and so when i am unable to focus i play the six songs um and that's my commitment that i'm gonna finish those six songs um because often times when we're distracted and overwhelmed we have to complete a task but then we see 73 other tasks and now we're even more overwhelmed um so yeah i love classical music i also honor the fact that sometimes i need to listen to some rap right like i'm just feeling it like i just need it and it's gonna soothe me in the moment because i'm you know feeling a certain way yeah energize you yes yeah
GARVIN: yeah yeah the type of music i listen to when i'm cleaning the house or running is very different than when i'm doing something relaxing or trying to break down at night and um you know my niece recently she's 12 years old she's been listening to waterfalls at night so you can also listen to different ambient sounds of the ocean of the rain of waterfalls um Spotify all those have those options too what is the thing it's called it's around i'm not going to pronounce it correctly hurts you can listen to sounds like what you're saying 350 hertz or 450 hertz and yeah i didn't know that much about it and i read this book by a neurosurgeon who actually uses certain types of frequencies and i'm sure our intel folks and what i'm trying to say uh but you listen to certain types of frequency that can help with well sleep and relaxation and other states and there's been a lot of research around that so Spotify youtube yeah youtube has a ton of um playlists too for sleep and different sounds and the different hertz sure and yeah so hertz is a bi um how do you say that thank you BINAURAL BEAT and is one method used by sound therapy it uses low frequencies that fall in the alpha theta gamma delta range so it corresponds to the brain wave frequencies that also vibrate in the lower lane just try it you know it i i've tried it it's a different um sound but again all of these things that activate our senses in different ways can do so much for us
SANDLAND: for sure and everyone's body is so different and everyone's so what i needed five years ago with my nervous system is very different than what i need now so what's important to acknowledge is that we're all trying to figure out ways um to be more present in our lives um and that the whole goal is to explore so i do this for a living never really thought of colors and like light therapy sure i can acknowledge the dimming and the you know the lights at a doctor's office makes me feel very different but um we're all exploring we're all trying to figure it out so we challenge you just to lean in and explore
GARVIN: yes i love that and again all of these different things that we've mentioned some of them may sound kind of out there for you but i don't remember who had this saying it might have been a philosopher but contempt prior to investigation so before you sort of have a a negative outlook or or judge something try it investigate be curious see if it might work for you try these things with with your kids especially during COVID. kids have been having a lot of anxiety there's been a lot of research around using oils and essential therapy for children as well and calming them down so yeah do do your own research and see what works for you
SANDLAND: yeah and i will also say that peppermint oil helps with muscle aches so yeah just throwing it out there
GARVIN: yeah i know a lot of massage therapists will use that for sore muscles so that was it we were just going to kind of do a quick like you said giving people some is there anything i left out or anything
SANDLAND: yeah just just one little piece that jill and i discussed is the importance of shutting off technology so technology is a really useful tool and so one thing i challenge each one of my clients and and i do myself is even if it's on the weekend physically shut your phone off um even if it's just for 10 minutes um because we are connected to the world and information and when you shut it off even if it's for a short period of time you're resetting your phone right you're rebooting your phone you're also rebooting some of the your neurons um to really just separate so i think that was it jill because we wanted to honor the importance of technology and also the
GARVIN: importance of turning it off that all right because it's true we're constantly wired whether it's social media or listening to something or reading our books on our phones i mean just everything but it is important to i have a hard time with that self-discipline sometimes and i will tell myself okay you know you get five more minutes on the phone then you're turning it off you know whatever i'm doing so so sam thank you for being here again thank you we'll meet again and have some other other topics as well to offer people some some useful tangible um suggestions and i really appreciate you being here and if anybody needs to contact you what is your contact number
SANDLAND: um my my my best way to contact me is if you go to my website champ psychological services dot com um and just um do go to contact contact me um and then just put your name in and then i'll get the message
GARVIN:okay great just if anybody had any questions yeah thank you again and i've enjoyed our podcast together yes have a great day okay bye
| Date Taken: | 03.02.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.02.2021 15:20 |
| Category: | Newscasts |
| Audio ID: | 65436 |
| Filename: | 2103/DOD_108209146.mp3 |
| Length: | 00:26:08 |
| Location: | OTIS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, MA, US |
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