A lot of people are working from home due to the Coronavirus lockdown. In a recent survey 35% of respondents reported that working from home has had a negative impact on their mental health.
In this episode Craig shares some of his experiences working from home and how the Coronavirus quarantine has impacted his work.
They also discuss ways you can overcome some of the issues and challenges of working from home during this time.
Tune in to see Working From Home Through a Therapist’s Eyes!
Listen to Episode #86 – Working From Home and Mental Health
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Episode #86 Transcription
Craig Graves: [00:00:00] Welcome.
Chris Gazdik: [00:00:04] Welcome to you too, sir. I see the little recording button up there in the top right hand, top left hand corner. Is that me? We’re live.
Craig Graves: [00:00:11] Yeah. Yeah. So we’ve been threatening or talking about doing video for a long time, and now this, COVID virus has made us or forced us to. Do I enter a podcast over zoom. So you may be seeing this on YouTube for the first time is our first little experiment with video podcasts.
Chris Gazdik: [00:00:33] And to be honest with you, we’re just like having some fun, doing a little live feed on Facebook. So yeah. We had that going out to just experiment and playing with some new things on, throughatherapistseyes, right?
The podcast where we invite you to see the world through the lens of a mental health and substance abuse therapist, being aware of this is not to delivery of therapy services in any way. Feedback and discussion on throughatherapisteyes.com. I guess, what else do I want to say here? We got a book coming out with, throughatherapistseyes as a, as expected mr.
Graves. They absolutely changed the title.
Craig Graves: [00:01:08] Yeah. That’s that’s Chris’s book. Chris has written the book, met with the publishers earlier this week and you’re right. I did, they did offer some good, good advice. I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s exciting.
Chris Gazdik: [00:01:22] It’s good to work. Good to work with people and know what they’re doing.
So they changed the title, just the subtitle, but excited about that coming out in the next it’s several months and you are mr. Coach. Craig Graves. What are you doing with coaching?
Craig Graves: [00:01:34] I am. I’m getting there, man. I’m working on some stuff, putting together a webinar. I’ll be announcing soon to start getting some stuff out there.
So I’m excited about it, man. It’s a lot of fun having some fun with it.
Chris Gazdik: [00:01:47] That’s good. That’s good. Well, we’re switching up this episode. I don’t know what the, what are we titling at? You’re you’re kind of in charge here this time. This is episode 86, staying at home in the coronavirus or something like that.
What are you, what are you titling this thing, man?
Craig Graves: [00:02:02] Yeah. I don’t know what we’re going to title it yet, but we’re trying to do some Corona virus specific episodes to maybe help people with it issues that might be coming up as a result of this virus. We did a show a few weeks ago and it was more on, I think the coronavirus in general and we just finished the show with Joshua Shae? there may or may not be out before this one. I think, I think it will be, but, we talked to Josh about pornography and the COVID viruses. Evidently, pornography usage has gone way up since the lockdown happened and, Josh. Talk to us about that. So that was going to be coming out pretty soon too.
We’ve got some other ideas for coronavirus specific shows. This one is about working remotely in mental health. So, yeah,
Chris Gazdik: [00:02:49] and I didn’t relate, man. This will I keep on saying on these shows, man, I won the mics back, dude. I, the zoom stuff’s kind of cool. Your voice is kind of cracking up. I mean, we’re, we’re doing the best that we can, but dude, I, I want to be sitting down at the table at the desk with the microphones again.
I want stuff to be normal. Mr. Graves.
Craig Graves: [00:03:07] Yeah, well, I don’t know normal what norm was going to look like, but yeah, we’ll get back there and we’ll get back there someday. Same for the same table, at least same room, Chris. what, what, what do you, what is your experience with working from home, man? Do you have any at all?
Chris Gazdik: [00:03:23] Yeah. You know, I think, I think, It’s it’s been fascinating, you know, seeing it from my eyes, and from all of the different people that I work with in, you know, at the office, man, we’re working from home. I think a lot of things about it. I mean, I think you’re, first of all, you’re way more familiar with it than I am.
Aren’t you? Right. You’ve been doing this for awhile. for, for most of us like me, I mean, Messing around with all the zoom conferencing stuff and you know, it just, it’s, it’s draining, it’s stressful, it’s different, it’s change. And so I think that that’s, that’s one of the biggest things that, that people are struggling with is, you know, we all like control.
We like, we like things to be the way we want it to be. And right now, it just, the lack of control that I think people feel is, is super frustrating. So in some ways I’m really enjoying it. And in other ways that I’m not, no, I’m actually going into my office still a lot, but I’m doing a lot of teleconferencing and Skype conferencing.
Cause insurance companies have. Allowed us to do it. And bill insurance, which is Holy cow, couldn’t believe the insurance companies have let us, you know, make that large of a change, but they have. So it’s, I, I, I think people are liking it, but people are really struggling with things being different.
Craig Graves: [00:04:38] Now, are you in the office every day or are you going, why are you doing something from the house there?
Chris Gazdik: [00:04:43] I do actually go in every day just because I still have a lot of business stuff I gotta do. you know, I was founder, so I got reports I got to do every day and everything that kind of going on there with that.
So, so I’m pretty much still actually kinda mentally health wise the same. And in that it’s not totally different for
Craig Graves: [00:05:01] me now. How do you feel about working from home in general? Let’s say, let’s just say that, you know, you couldn’t go in at all and you had to do everything from the house there. How would you, how would you kind of feel about that?
Chris Gazdik: [00:05:12] Yeah, it would be weird again because it’s different. Right. in some ways it’s super cool. you know, don’t have to totally get dressed up. You can put a shirt on, like I’m doing here, you know, you know, and, and have shorts on underneath and, and you only get to see from here up. I don’t know. It, it, I, I, I feel like it really.
Boxes people in to a large extent, being, being at home. I enjoy talking to people on the phone. I think I can kind of deal with it pretty, pretty well. It’d be sitting out in my backyard and I’ve done that a little bit. I’ve had, I’ve had more than one session now sitting out in the backyard, you know, so
yeah.
It’s pretty cool. It is. Yeah. Yeah. It’s funny. In fact, I’ve told my clients a story more than once, man. Yeah. We got a, a, a bumblebee killing contest at the Gazdik home right. So I’m sitting there. I got a down three to two and the first time that I was working out of the home, you know, I had two sessions right.
In a row. So that’s two hours in my back yard, man. I was up 10 to three popping bubble peace with my tennis racket, man.
Craig Graves: [00:06:15] Bumblebees are God’s Creatures too, man.
Chris Gazdik: [00:06:18] Ahh they dig holes.
Craig Graves: [00:06:20] Murdering bumblebees. Okay.
Chris Gazdik: [00:06:23] Digging holes in my deck, man. And they’re scary. They just sound so loud and so big, but I’m
Craig Graves: [00:06:30] going to talk about an article about a study and I, and I I’ve just got one article and I shared it on our Facebook page and I shared it on our LinkedIn page.
And it talks about how working from home it’s affected people’s mental health. But really, I kind of wanted to talk about my experience with it before we get into that. So, you know, I guess it was around the year 20, 2006. I think that my company started letting us have some flexibility. So I was working from home two to three days a week back in 2006 and then around the 2007, I guess, timeframe, 2008, we went home full time.
So I was a full time work at home guy. from that time until about 2014, in fact, we got pulled back into the office and I think it was November of 2014. Now I still have some, you know, I still a little bit of flexibility here and there anyway, before this, this COVID thing get now back at home, full time now, but dude, that is my element, man.
I have thrived. I’ve continued to get. Hi, hi rankings and my on my performance reviews. And, I can get a lot done for the, for, for the company, you know, and I can get a lot done at my house. You know, it goes both ways and it’s just less stressful. I can run up and have lunch with the kids or I could before they got to go for me.
so I can do those kinds of things. You know, there’s no commute saves time when gas and stuff like that. And the way our company is structured, Chris is. There’s nobody else in the city of Charlotte who does what I do. So me being me being at home, really, nobody knows where I’m at. If I, if I’m there working.
So, you know, that’s kind of been, that’s kinda been my experience with working from home. I’ve I’ve actually done really well with that, with this survey that we’re going to talk about today. the article I’ll post,
Chris Gazdik: [00:08:22] hold on, hold on a minute, Craig, let me ask you a question then. How do you, How did you adjust to that?
So, so you’re in your element, you love it, but yeah, that was a forced on you, you’re saying, right?
Yeah.
So
Craig Graves: [00:08:34] it really forced me. I mean, in the beginning they gave us the option. I think it got to a point where the company was sending people home. But when I started working from home full time, it was an option.
Hey, do you want to go home? Yes. You know, and I was home and for me it was kind of a transition. I kind of transitioned into it. I told you I was doing two to three days a week from home, and then that turned into eventually to full time. So, you know, for me it was a, it was just, it was just an easy transition.
Chris Gazdik: [00:09:04] Okay. Yeah, because I think that, you know, maybe there’s a difference between you to that transition and having the ability to choose and whatnot. I think part of the, part of the struggle people are really having is, is, you know, lots of things like, you know, with childcare, you know, your, your, your kids are at home.
They’re not in school. That is way stressful. You know, and yeah, that is, that is a whole different ball game. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s difficult because of the distractions, like you say, your productivity stayed up and whatnot. I I’d venture to guess a lot of people’s productivity, just tanks. I know a friend of mine or actually my wife’s.
well, who was it while I was talking to it? Wasn’t my wife. Anyway, I was talking to somebody who’s, got a friend that’s staying at home. And they’re being completely harassed by, you know, their employer. I mean, you know, document every moment of the day, I want to know what you’re doing. So it’s almost like, you know, a major, hassle to be staying at home to prove that you’re actually being productive.
I think.
Craig Graves: [00:10:06] No, I don’t want to get myself in trouble. Somebody hears, hears this, but I think that’s an old mentality, man. And you know, as long as you get your job done, as long as you know, if I give you a task to do, and I say, Hey, get this done by Friday at five. I don’t care if you do it Monday morning.
If you do a Wednesday afternoon, if you do a Thursday, I don’t care if you do it at midnight on, on, on, you know, on Monday, it didn’t matter. As long as your work gets done. And that’s what it’s all about, at least in my opinion. And that’s how I’ve managed my, my employees in the past when I’ve, when I’ve been in those kinds of situations.
So I think it’s just a change in the mentality of, of the, of management and the worker, you know, and if I don’t trust you to get your job done, I should have never hired you. And I should fire you and hire somebody else that I can trust to get a job.
Chris Gazdik: [00:10:54] Right. Right.
Craig Graves: [00:10:55] So this will documenting every second of the day.
And, you know, that’s, that’s ridiculous. At least, in my opinion,
Chris Gazdik: [00:11:01] Well, absolutely. I think anybody would agree with you. The fact of the matter is, you know, like I said, maybe it’s just a matter of adjustment with people that are, you know, they’re managing their, you know, their employees for the first time ever like this.
I mean, you understand, particularly in my field, we’re not used to this type of thing. I mean, banking and, you know, different industries that, that, you know, might be more familiar with it. I think there’s a lot of people that aren’t, which by the way, you know, might be part of what comes out of this COVID-19 reality is that, you know, a lot of things are being experienced for the first time.
you know, I’ll give you an idea about that. I mean, I would have been caught dead making this statement a month and a half ago, but, I, I I’ve always believed and still do that. Therapy face to face is ideal. Right. And then you got a little bit of a step down doing, you know, video conferencing like we’re doing with zoom and whatnot.
Then, then I would have said. So way drop off on the phone. Like that’s not effective therapy modality now I’m kind of shocked. I’m I’m, I’m now seeing it as just a little bit of a step from the video conferencing thing. I have had highly effective sessions on the phone. I mean, to me it all. Yes. Yes. As a matter of fact, one session kind of.
sticks out in my mind that the conversation I was having with the teenager on the phone, I remember getting off the phone and telling my receptionist lady, it was just processing this very same topic. And I was like, dude, that is the best session ever with this particular client. Like we, and I don’t, I don’t think he was necessarily anything about the phone per se.
Just happened to be, you know, a good time and a good topic for that, for that kid. But I, would’ve never dreamed that a couple, few months ago.
Craig Graves: [00:12:49] So you’re talking about a phone call. You’re not talking about a zoom. You talking about a phone conversation? Yeah,
Chris Gazdik: [00:12:54] yeah. Yes. Less. Yeah. Less than a, less than Skype and whatnot.
Just simply being on the phone with
Craig Graves: [00:13:00] people. Okay. I’m surprised at that too. I would have thought in a therapy situation, or even a coach, some situation that you’re looking for, body language and facial expressions and breathing patterns and all that kind of thing when you’re talking to somebody and that would clue you in to where they are mentally and emotionally.
So I’m surprised to hear that a phone call was just a small step down from that.
Chris Gazdik: [00:13:28] Like I said, man, I was, I was super surprised as well. I I’m, I’m still kind of amazed at that. you know, the reality of it is that, you’re still getting a lot of nonverbal communication with your spacing of words and you know, the rapid speech that you have, the voice tones, all, all that stuff.
But, but don’t get me wrong now. Face-to-face is the ideal. Video conferencing is second best and telephone’s third, but yeah, that’s surprised. Shocking
Craig Graves: [00:13:52] too. So you’ve known me for awhile now, Chris, and, you know, I’m a big proponent of working from home and working remotely and working flexibly and stuff like that.
But I will say that I don’t think it’s for everybody or every position, you know, I would have assumed that being a therapist, that would it be, it’d be better to be in person or at least where I can see you. Yeah, another example, I’ll be, I used to run an operation same and we used to keep the servers running, you know, 24 seven.
So we had a team. We had somebody on site every minute of the day, 365 days a year.
Chris Gazdik: [00:14:25] And so it’s
Craig Graves: [00:14:26] not the one go down when something would break when a server would stop working. Then those guys would get together and figure out what’s going on. And they would fix the issue if we add some kind of new equipment coming in and, you know, that those guys could get together and brainstorm on how to fix it or how to set it up or whatever.
And so those guys eventually got sent home too. And I was shocked because I felt that they really needed to be. they’re together face to face, you know, figuring things out me and I moved into a new role where I was doing more of data analytics. And there was nobody else in the city that did what I did, what I did or do what I do.
And so it didn’t make sense for me to be in, to be in an office. I didn’t have to be there. there was nobody for me to collaborate with in that office. Right. So I just want to make that point that I don’t think working from home is for every job or every person. Okay. And so, you know, let’s, let’s talk about the article a little bit and I don’t want, I kind of want to hear if you’re hearing anything from, from your clients.
So there was a survey that was done. this was in a New York post and I shared that on our Facebook group too. If you guys want to go out there and check it out, it says that, 35% of workers who telecommute said their mental health had deteriorated as a result of doing so amid the coronavirus lot.
Now, according to a survey conducted by researchers at, I think it’s Keo K E I O university in Tokyo. the survey was conducted on March 26 through 28. yeah. So among, among telecommuters, 35% said their mental health had deteriorated as a result of having to work from home 50.7% said it had no impact on their mental health in 14.3%.
So their mental health had improved. So what do you think? What do you, what do you think, man? What are you, what are you hearing there?
Chris Gazdik: [00:16:19] Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say. Let’s, let’s pause there for sure. Because I, you know, I think it’s important for people to kind of realize, you know, when you’re talking about working at home, you know, since the beginning of this thing I’ve been calling for prudent decisions, number one, number two, you really want to have, you know, calm attitude so that.
fear is not driving this and that shame is not driving. That that’s really important to be able to make prudent decisions. And then number three, that we’re aware so that we’re not blowing stuff off, and we’re still, we’re still dealing with this, you know, and, and an informed is informed way as we can.
So the reality of, of people being at home, you know, there’s a certain amount of shame involved in that I would suggest, right. Because. Aren’t you supposed to be in a happy marriage? Aren’t you supposed to love your kids? Aren’t you supposed to quality value, quality time with people, you know, there’s, there’s these myths, you know, we’re supposed to say at home, play for cheesy and be just like totally happy.
And you know, the reality of it is that that’s not quite reality. You know, it’s stressful to be around our children. That you’re really, really sick and tired of us. They don’t want to hear us talking about picking up the, the, the. Wrappers on the floor and getting on their case about this, that, and the other and stuff.
So, so when you’re talking about spending a whole lot of extra time, you have these added factors that are, that are really, you know, a challenge. you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a well known thing in marriage counseling. For instance, when you take long trips, you know, vacations are actually stressful. What is the phrase you’ve ever heard, you know, to have a vacation from my vacation.
Yeah. You’ve heard that mid part. That’s because it’s, it’s really stressful to be around those people that you know, that you love and you’re closest to because you need a certain amount of break. You know, I have my life over here, you have your life. We, we converged together to create, you know, what we’re doing together, but we need those, those boundaries and those breaks.
And so when you’re, when you’re stripped from that, And, and I am concerned as this goes along more and more, you know, the more and more that were stripped from that, the more and more we’re going to have, you know, all kinds of mental breakdowns, you know, domestic violence and fighting arguments and, you know, child abuse.
I mean, we we’ve started to kind of highlight the mental health factors, alcohol sales. I saw article alcohol drinking up 30%.
Craig Graves: [00:18:49] Wow.
Chris Gazdik: [00:18:51] 30%. Yeah. Boom. It’s jumping up.
Craig Graves: [00:18:54] Wow.
Chris Gazdik: [00:18:55] So I don’t know. I it’s it’s you, you, you, you feel like, I think my main point here is you feel like you’re supposed to be happy because you’re not at work, you’re at home, but a lot of people are really stressed out, you know, maybe in a way also adults are a whole lot more like our kids than what we think we are.
Because right now, kids are kinda like, you know, I’d be willing to bet I can’t wait for school to be done. This is so best thing ever. And then now we’re three weeks, four weeks into this and they’re doing things in their mind. They don’t know what to do with
Craig Graves: [00:19:33] themselves.
Chris Gazdik: [00:19:34] Can you imagine, and we’re going to imagine it’s going to be a reality here in about four or five months.
We’re going to be coming towards the end of the summer. And I think kids are, I’m very, very worried about kids staying at home right now. I feel like it’s such a terrible detriment. Two, two children. Now I’m supposed to be following your lead Greg up billing. I’m jumping off into another category of topic here with, with
Craig Graves: [00:19:57] kids at home.
I’m here. You’re obviously you’re the guy. I know. So your input is valuable. But, but you know, I think you’re right. A lot of my experience with working from home has been, you know, when I did it, way back in the mid two thousands or whatever my kids were either in school or in daycare, you know, and I didn’t, they didn’t get home until around 5:00 PM.
So I had all day there at the house by myself. Now my kids are a little older. My son is 16 and my daughter is 11. And I understand that’s got to work, so they’re doing their schoolwork and I’ll say, Hey, I got a meeting and they’ll, they’ll go upstairs or, you know, go outside and play on the grass or what the yard, whatever, while I’m doing my thing.
So they’re easy to manage, right? Some people have young kids at home who don’t understand what that means. You know, I’ve got a buddy down in Wilmington and, he and I spoke today and I said, Hey man, you don’t see my cure yourself. And he said, yeah, me and my, me and my girls are annoying each other, you know?
So, I mean, it was hard for him to get into a groove with his, with his kids, be in there. And I’ve heard the same things about, you know, some of my friends have said the same things about, about being at home with their spouse and it, and how difficult it is to work out of the same household. So my, my work from home situation is a lot different than other papers when it comes to other people being here.
And so my kids were at their mom’s once, you know, every, every other week too, that helps. So like this week, they’re not here at all, you know? And so I’m able to function fairly well. There’s no problems for me. So,
Chris Gazdik: [00:21:38] yeah, let’s, let’s, let’s stay here if we good. And then Craig, and then we’ll get back to the article, wherever you’re at.
you know, because this is, this is something that I want to kind of highlight a little bit. I’ve I’ve been, you know, they’re with me audience because it’s kind of fresh off my, my thinking, to be honest with you, I was started thinking about this this morning in a session with somebody, we were just kind of starting the therapy session and we were chit chatting about stuff.
I am really becoming more and more. No, I’ll tell you exactly what it was. It wasn’t in a session. It was my, my older kids school counselor, and I were having this conversation for Craig. So she’s, she’s kind of trained as well. She’s, she’s a school counselor. and, and, and so she and I were kind of kicking this back and forth.
And man, you know, you and I are adults. You just, you’re talking about your adjustment a little bit. You asked me how I’m dealing with staying at home. I think industry’s, some, some that it applies to more than others. Like you pointed out, I I’ll say adults will adjust and we’re, we’re gonna, we’re going to cope with it.
We’re we’re gonna make adjustments. We’re gonna, we’re gonna do what we need to do, but dude are our children. I’m really becoming concerned about, and by the way, I don’t have any answers about it, you know? Cause I feel like to a certain extent they, they need to be pulled out of school because I mean, one kid gets a Corona virus, man though the whole lot of them are gonna likely be jumped onto it.
You know, so, by the way, Facebook glad people make a comment and I think it’ll come up on here. So it’ll be cool for you. Can, you can actually, maybe we experiment with it. You can join the conversation that these kids are are, are, are really affected socially. they’re they’re they’re really effected scholastically.
I, I. I don’t know about your kids, Craig, but do Monart learning very dang. They’re not dialing into the information socially. They’re not engaging with their teacher. And the teacher, student relationship is really, you know, invaluable. I think we’re going to, we’re going to be, you know, seeing that and studying that.
the video game reality, you know, we’ve, we’ve got social media. We did shows before that’s increasing the levels of anxiety that people are having. This, this is just sort of, honestly, off the top of my head when I’m talking about, you know, kids and, and the effects on, on not being in school. It. Is beginning to really, really concern me.
Craig Graves: [00:24:01] Yeah. That’s probably a show in and of itself, but you’re right. I mean, I think it’s a huge concern for, for kids. being stuck at home. My kids are like, I really want to go to school now. Like, man, I wish I could go to school, you know,
Chris Gazdik: [00:24:13] school or
Craig Graves: [00:24:14] not my kids, you know, before this thing happens, like, Oh, I don’t want to go to school.
We’re going to stay home from school. But now it’s like, I want to go back to school. So you
Chris Gazdik: [00:24:22] are hearing that they want to go back. Yeah, mine don’t mine are, mine are quite content.
Craig Graves: [00:24:26] Particularly my sons, my daughter, she’s like, yeah, I want to go back to school. Well,
Chris Gazdik: [00:24:32] I think the younger, which is interesting.
Right? So can we say that there is an effect, you know, from my clinical mind, the, you know, the older kid is. The more, that’s not going to be the case. The younger, the kid is the more important it is to get that socialization and those connections and that engagement, you know, with kids in their, in their grew, in their grades and in their, in their lives.
I think there’s a, you know, there’s a, there’s a great concern. You know, in the things you wouldn’t realize a kid is getting from the classroom they’re, they’re missing.
Craig Graves: [00:25:12] I understand.
Chris Gazdik: [00:25:13] You’re pointing me back to get back to the article. I say. Great. Yeah.
Craig Graves: [00:25:16] I think kids in coronavirus is probably a whole topic by itself, you know?
And I don’t wanna get too far off topic here. So what kind of stuff are you hearing from your clients, man? Are your clients stressed up about working from home or how, how are they doing.
Chris Gazdik: [00:25:29] Let’s let’s go back and finish the article that you had, man. Were you, you, did you, are you, are we done with that?
Craig Graves: [00:25:34] No, I just a couple other things.
I wanted to point out off the articles. So it says other respondents who said doing telework had worsened, their mental state, 41.3% said it was difficult to separate their work and personal lives. And I think that’s kind of where we are talking about our kids being home and are our parents or our spouses being home.
So I think that probably makes it pretty difficult. Well, about 39.9%, who said they weren’t able to do enough exercise and 39.7% who said they had difficulty communicating with coworkers. So excess
of
39.9%, you know, for me, man, it’s easy to exercise. I got a little home gym. But there are tons and tons of workout.
People offering free workouts these days. I mean, Spartan races doing it, a unbeatable mind seal fits doing it. I’m a guy I’m connected with on LinkedIn has a program race in and out body weight stuff. So if, if you’re listening to this and exercise is an issue for you, then, then get in touch with me and I can turn you onto some of these programs, man.
But exercise is something that you can really do anywhere. And you don’t even really need much equipment to do it besides your body. So don’t let that get you down.
Chris Gazdik: [00:26:51] Yeah. You know, let me go, let me actually kind of do an experiment like Craig, we’ve got some comments with, with Facebook live thing, which is, which is neat and new for us.
I mean, you know, cause somebody just said, you know, Amy was like, you know, Hey, I had to take my son’s PS4 away. He was just to get them to a score. It’s true. I mean, I, I feel like the challenge between parents. And kids is, is a big factor here. And you just said something about talking to coworkers. It was very difficult.
Craig Graves: [00:27:19] Yeah.
Chris Gazdik: [00:27:20] Communication with, with coworkers, we are geared and designed to really be, be in connection with other people. I don’t know if it was this show Craig or the last show, but I was like, dude, I miss shaking. People’s hands. I mean, I want it, I just met a new client today in my office. And, and I mean, it’s a very important part of, of relating to each other.
I mean, I reach my hand out, you know, I shake their hand, I kind of smile at them, you know, kind of walk through the hallway with them and, and, and immediately that connection starts. And I just feel like people are really missing that you, you know, the, the, the stat you through there with coworkers, we are stripped from our ability to make.
Real connections with people, and you know, in the, in the workplace. And, and I’m, I’m concerned about that too. It actually, as you read that,
Craig Graves: [00:28:10] yeah, it’s interesting. You say that. Were you shaking hands today?
Chris Gazdik: [00:28:14] No, no, no, I didn’t. I didn’t shake his hand. I don’t want to, I miss it
Craig Graves: [00:28:19] yeah, I was about to give you a hard time for that.
Yeah. So, you know, the funny thing is, is we talk about we’re social creatures and we really are. I mean, there’s just no doubt about that, but, you know, I told you in 2014, we got pulled back into the office and, I really don’t have anybody in the city that I’m directly, that I’m directly working with.
But even when I was on meetings with people in the same building, we still did it from our desks, you know, on our phones. It’s not like we got together in a conference room and met. And there was a guy when we first went back in and there was a guy that worked on my team and he sat in a cube beside me.
So there was a divider and, you know, you had to stand up and if I stood up, it probably came to the right here on the top of the wall did, and he, and I could have a conversation like, like I’m talking right now and we would actually sit there and Chris and do and chat and talk to each other on the, on the company chat thingy.
Instead of having a conversation. So I hear what you’re saying, but I think in a lot of cases, man, you know, you don’t, you just do what you do. You don’t actually have the face to face interaction, even if you’re in the office, at least that’s my experience with it.
Chris Gazdik: [00:29:36] And you know, yeah. It’s, it’s, you’re, you’re way more experienced, with this than I am.
There’s there’s no doubt about it. I, you know, I’m a scifi guy kind of like, you know, scifi movies and, and in all the movies, you know, you got the, you know, the screen on the, on the ship there, and you’re talking to your loved one that’s on earth and, you know, you’re on your way to some other universe or something.
And, you know, I just, this, we are getting slammed dunked as a society. Completely into a way new way of existing and relating to each other. And, and I don’t, I, this is going to be studied for years to come in, in, in psychology circles and whatnot. Sociology circles and all of this, it’s, it’s, it’s just totally new fascinatingly.
Interestingly enough, it occurs to me to throw out and I’m not sure where we’re going. Cause I’m trying to follow your lead, I guess, Craig, but you know, I, I did have somebody that it was talking about in, you know, as a heavy AA member. So you talk about how’s it. You know, what, what affects for my clients you had asked earlier about staying at home?
Well, that is a huge reality for members of, of our recovering communities. They can’t go to meetings, man. I mean, you know, you, you can’t sit around in a, in a small church room and, and have, you know, even 15, 20, sometimes there’s 30, 35, 50 people, you know, in a room that are supporting each other, living a life together in an AA and 12 step communities.
She can’t do that. So, but she’s literally having 12 step virtual meetings, like with people around the world, she’s doing that now. Yeah. And I just, I find that fascinating because you can get the 12 step community that it just, it just evolves and goes all the way around, you know, the world. So, so there’s going to be cool things to come out of this, but yeah.
Particularly as it relates to kids
on most concerned.
Craig Graves: [00:31:33] Yeah. Along those lines, I’ve seen a lot of virtual things happening that weren’t happening before. And so, You know, one of my, one of my fellow coaches put together a little kind of like a little high school reunion. Obviously it wasn’t her whole class, but it was some people that she used to hang out with when she was high school.
They hadn’t seen each other for years. So now they’re getting together and having these little virtual high school reunions, if you will. And one of my fraternity brothers did the same thing. He put a zoom together and invited us in invited 25 or so of us to the zone. And, you know, we hadn’t seen each other in years, man.
So it was, you know, that that’s a cool thing to do. There’s lots of free online classes. there there’s so much stuff going on online now that you can’t keep up with it all. It’s, it’s overwhelming. And it’s really cool that people are connecting in that way. And this is obviously something that wasn’t, this communication was not happening in this way before.
So I hope some of that does carry over to when we kind of get back to a normal thing. So I think that’s been a pretty cool, and now you’re telling me about vitural AA meetings. I mean, that is really neat stuff. In my opinion, man.
Chris Gazdik: [00:32:43] I think one of the things you’ve got to remember or realize too, Craig, is that, You know, you are a tech guy you’re right. You’re, you’re, you’re more steeped in this and, and comfortable with this. I am not. And I think that’s a, you know, it’s funny because as we talk about this more things sort of click off in my brain, you know, in, in what are the effects of staying at home?
Well, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve actually talked to in my office that are, have, you know, people, you know, converting their, their office from home, or they’re taking their office at the office and converting it into home and whatnot. And the fact of the matter is, geez, Oh man, they’re not comfortable with that.
The printer doesn’t really work. yeah, I was supposed to log into this meeting. Like I can’t find it, you know, people say I’m supposed to search and there’s all this neat stuff. Well, I just frustrated with it. I don’t like it. It makes me mad, you know, is you get that technology anxiety because stuff doesn’t work.
Right. Right,
right.
Craig Graves: [00:33:45] Yeah. I’m trying to think of how that’s different for at home versus an office. So like, you know, you still have your company help, help line. They help you, you know?
Chris Gazdik: [00:33:54] Oh, I can. Yeah. I can tell you how it is. You got your tech support person right there in the office. There two doors down and the
Craig Graves: [00:34:01] big in a big company.
Most of the most we’ll tech support stuff in a big companies handle over the phone. You know, only if you’ve got a hardware malfunction or something like that, did they send somebody out? And, and in a lot of times you got to take the computer to them to get some hardware, things fixed. So tech support could be an issue.
I can see that, but in other ways, you know, other ways, maybe not.
Chris Gazdik: [00:34:26] Yeah, I, I think it’s, I think it’s tech support. I think it’s just familiarity, you know, somebody on the Facebook live was saying, yeah, they’re in the mental health field and seems to be doing good with virtual visits. I mean, Amy meet me too.
I’m I’m absolutely doing a lot of those. And. I’m not a tech guy, but I’m figuring Skype out and, and, and I’m, I’m enjoying that. It’s just herky jerky, you know, it’s, it, it works. And then it stops working and, and, and, you know, it’s, it’s just, it’s something that, again, I think I come back to Craig and my thoughts as we’re talking, it’s just different.
It’s strange, it’s awkward and it’s new and maybe it’s going to be great. But I think for at least a little while, you know, people are stressed out over it and about it and, and we’re trying to figure it out, you know, we’re trying to figure it out. The newness will wear off, but,
Craig Graves: [00:35:16] yeah. Okay. I can see how getting thrown into the fire.
Like we have been what the other factors at play like your, your kids and spouses, and I’ll be in a home at the same time. It can be, it could be a strain on your, on your mental state. I can definitely see that. You know, I think as far as my work environment at home over the years, it’s been pretty good because I haven’t had kids at home.
I haven’t had a spouse at home, you know, I kind of transitioned into it. I’m not in a role where I’m talking face to face with people on a daily basis anyway, and I can, and I can understand how that if you were, you know, not in those categories, I’ll be in all of a sudden you’re at homework and can be, it can be difficult for you.
Chris Gazdik: [00:35:56] Yeah, absolutely. you know,
Craig Graves: [00:36:00] and again, I don’t want to paint a bad picture of working. You were talking about working from home, messing up people’s mental health. If you look at that statistic, you know, 65% of people are either okay with it or, or in a better mental state, 14% are at a better, a better, a better mental state, according to them.
So has benefits, you know, it does definitely does.
Chris Gazdik: [00:36:21] Yeah. 14% are improved, but that leaves like 80% that are like not
Craig Graves: [00:36:29] 50% said there was no change.
Chris Gazdik: [00:36:32] Okay.
Craig Graves: [00:36:32] Okay. Gotcha. They’re at an even keel 35% are like, Hey, this ain’t good.
Chris Gazdik: [00:36:39] Right.
Craig Graves: [00:36:40] So I kind of wanted to cover a few, like things people could do. So if you’re struggling with working from home, You know, what are some things that you can do to, maybe to make things a little bit better?
And so I found another article. This one is from workplace mental health.org, and it’s entitled working remotely during COVID-19. And so, how do I maintain my health and wellness? We got what say you, Chris, and then we’ll read through these together.
Chris Gazdik: [00:37:08] Let’s say me about maintaining health and wellness.
Craig Graves: [00:37:12] Yeah, while you’re working from home during this deal.
Chris Gazdik: [00:37:17] Well, Facebook live people. What do you think? Give me some comments, help me out. He’s put me on the spot. I usually do that to him. Hey, I
Craig Graves: [00:37:27] know what made you speechless. I’m going to hang up right now.
Chris Gazdik: [00:37:31] I know, right? I think, I think really, what, what comes to my mind most is really kind of being able to take those breaks.
I think, you know, self care always comes to my mind when we’re talking about, you know, managing our mental health and, and managing. you know, our, our, our emotions and such, we really, we probably have a little bit of a panic, feeling that, Hey, you know, I’m, I’m on the, I’m on the Mark. People are watching me.
They’re, they’re telling me to document my productivity and, you know, you gotta be, you, you feel almost an extra pressure to be more engaged in what not in, in your work, in when you’re kind of. Being micromanaged and whatnot. So probably becomes way more important to take those five minute breaks. Those 10 minute breaks go out to the yard.
Don’t do that. Guilt-free you know, but also physical. You know, you gotta, you can’t forget, you know, you know, when you’re at home all day, you got the dishes sitting in it every day, you got this thing that needs cleaned. You got this crap that needs done. Oh, my kid might, my husband’s going to be coming home or my wife’s going to be home soon.
I’ve got to get the, you know, the nice dinner because I’ve been sitting here at home, you know, none of that stuff. It there’s, there’s probably just a bit of a head game because that really weighs us down. The, the, the, the internal pressure that we put. On ourselves for those types of things occurs to me.
As you asked me that question cold. So self care, managing the boundaries, you know, if you’re really working at home, you’re really working. You’re not doing home life, which means by the way, the kids that need your attention, the kids that are grabbing at you to, you know, you know, play with them and whatnot, like prudent decisions with a calm attitude, not driven on fear, but not driven on shame.
You’re not a bad mom, if you’re at home ignoring the kids because you’re in work hours, you know, taking those breaks and, and the other, being aware, you know, not blowing stuff off as this is no big deal. that’s what comes to my mind, I guess, at first.
Craig Graves: [00:39:27] Good. So you said, take breaks, structure your Workday, right?
Yup. Did you say that were there three or just.
Chris Gazdik: [00:39:35] not, not so many words structure, but yeah, you’re right. I said that, but,
Craig Graves: [00:39:40] okay. So how do I maintain my health? And when, according to this article, right? What you said, keep it keep a regular schedule. And this article has that broken down seven to seven 30.
I’m waking up I’m stretching and taking care of kids, kids, animals, whatever, 7:30 AM having breakfast with the family technology free eight 30 work on work and check on updates with small breaks every 30 minutes or so. Well, that’s eight 30 to 12, 12 to one’s a lunch break. So just like you said, you know what maintain, maintain a schedule structure that day out and, you know, work time is work time and work some breaks in there.
Chris Gazdik: [00:40:16] I’m proud of myself. I did good. All right.
Craig Graves: [00:40:18] Yeah, you did good. So I do that now. Like I’ll, I’ll plan out my calendar all day. You know, I’ll plug things in there. It just like it’s doing here. So it’s on my calendar so I can look at what’s next. Oh, okay. I’ve taken a break, you know, what’s next, I’m having lunch, you know?
So I missed that.
Chris Gazdik: [00:40:34] The structure really helps us center our brain in on the small tasks of the moment or of the day structure. Sure, sure. It’s really important that way. Yeah. So I’m not, I’m not too surprised.
Craig Graves: [00:40:48] Yup. number two was stay connected and stay connected with family and friends using technologies like we’re doing right now.
Skype, FaceTime, Google, Hangouts, whatever. keep your immune system strong. Make a commitment to staying strong by washing hands. Getting enough sleep, eating well, staying hydrated, taking vitamins. jump in Chris, if you need to at any point. Prioritize personal hygiene and limit contact with others.
Okay. So that’s social, social distancing. I think if you’re doing things like that, it’s probably taking your mind off of being sick. Chris, is that, is that kinda, where do you think they’re going with that? You know, worry about getting the virus,. Yeah.
Chris Gazdik: [00:41:27] I can see that.
Craig Graves: [00:41:28] Yeah. exercise and stay active. Now that that other article people said they couldn’t exercise at home, but I think that’s easily overcomeable.
If that’s a word easy to overcome. Yes.
Get some fresh air circumstances, allow, go outside for a brisk walk and fresh air. But avoid crowds and try to maintain the recommended six foot distance with others. So here’s what I’m doing, man. I’ll go outside and I’ll take my shoes off and I’ll walk around in the grass, on the earth with no shoes on, you know, and that’s called grounding.
That sounds kind of woo. But the earth is entered. The earth has energy. And I believe that getting that energy into your body through your feet is a, is a good thing. And if nobody’s around, I’ll take my shirt off, you know, and get some sun while I’m out there. And I stay clean 20 minutes. Well,
Chris Gazdik: [00:42:22] pause there for a second, you know, because you said he says something that strikes me, that I think is, is, is pretty important.
You know, grounded. Yeah. It is a little woowooo. By the way, it takes shoes off barefoot, go walking her earth and get grounded to the earth. But you know, as much as do you think that’s woo and weird. You know, it triggered a thought for me, Craig, that that is absolutely. That’s a clinical term. We use that
Craig Graves: [00:42:50] what’s that is that.
I don’t think it’s weird. I’m doing it
Chris Gazdik: [00:42:55] all right. Well, they think it’s weird, but anyway, the clinical term is being grounded. And, and I think that what I’m kind of stuck on and we look at what are the effects of working from home. It’s that I don’t feel that structure says people I’m, I’m struggling with not feeling, you know, the connection with others.
you know, I don’t. I I’m, I’m, I’m struggling with the added internal pressure of, of what people are expecting from me. My, my wife with a, with a meal when I get home or my kids with entertainment and whatnot. Well, what is the calm and foundation of all of those things? It occurs to me as we’re talking, the common part of all of those things is I don’t feel grounded.
I feel scattered. I feel, you know, when you’re working from home and you’re, you’re, you’re, this is thrust upon you. I’m struggling with feeling in control and I’m struggling with, with knowing what to expect. I’m up in the air. It’s everything’s Lucy goosey. I don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring.
People don’t like that. It’s distressing and it’s seriously messing with their systems of anxiety. It’s seriously messing with their system of depression. seriously hindering our ability to, to relax and feel grounded. So what’d you say is, is really cool. Yeah. Go, go out and be with the earth for a minute.
Craig Graves: [00:44:23] It’s
Chris Gazdik: [00:44:24] yeah. Okay. To do that.
Craig Graves: [00:44:27] Yeah. It’s good for you, right? I mean, it definitely is. Now the next two were kind of, they kind of go hand in hand and you kind of, kind of be careful. So the first one is stay informed. Knowledge is power and it’s good to stay updated on progress. Being made, combining the virus to stay informed on the latest updates from reliable sources, like the CDC and the who.
Okay. So,
Chris Gazdik: [00:44:53] no, we don’t informed with the news.
Craig Graves: [00:44:57] Well, that’s I said he’s still, they still go hand in hand. The next one is limit media consumption. So is your to news media and social media that may trigger or elevate anxiety, stress, or panic, stay informed by following phew. Authoritative resources that limit can limit media consumption.
And I think that’s maybe the best advice that we’ve we’ve we’ve said tonight, you know, and dude, it is
Chris Gazdik: [00:45:25] certainly comment about that, Craig, if I could, because I’ve kind of given that feedback to, you know, a lot of my, people in, in, in office, And the Facebook live, people would be curious to hear what you hear about this type type of way, because the, we did a show on the mass media and I thought that was a super good show, a few episodes back.
it’s it’s, you know, has it, it has a great impact. I think. what was I going to say? The, the. I lost my train of thought, Craig, that was, I was checking out the
Craig Graves: [00:45:59] media. You said you were talking about talking to us. Yes.
Chris Gazdik: [00:46:03] Because
the information that you get is so varied and intoxicated with anxiety and whatnot. And I really am having a lot of my clients that are just kind of sucked into the centrifuge of absolutely too much information. And I mean, you can imagine it, you know, you got the OCD people or the people that are anxiously and worried and whatnot.
I mean, it’s just, it’s just struggling with, you know, rampant, Give me more. Give me more, give me more, you ask a question to get an answer and that, and then I have another question and another question, another piece of information. It just, it can really absolutely drive anxiety to a whole another level.
And it’s very, it’s very concerning.
Craig Graves: [00:46:45] Oh yeah. It really, really can. Absolutely. You can. There’s a lot going on in the media, you know, I’m not saying that it’s a conspiracy, but a lot of us become political and a lot of the opinions and. So called facts that you hear are politicized and it’s it’s yeah, it’s, it’s a cesspool of negativity and misinformation.
Chris Gazdik: [00:47:07] Yeah, it’s interesting. A Facebook live is saying, you know, it’s less stress at home and, and, and it goes both ways, but Craig, I think, you know, people might say also, yeah, you don’t have as much colleague, well back and forth and, and, you know, what would you say? Political political BS that goes on in the office?
It’s all cut out. So it’s less stressful. You can actually be more productive maybe.
Craig Graves: [00:47:30] Well, you know, we’ve already said 60 to 65% of the people are either no change or you’re better off. So we’re just trying to tell you the 35% who were having some trouble here, so
Chris Gazdik: [00:47:41] right.
Craig Graves: [00:47:42] Set boundaries on work schedule. I think they kind of goes along with the first thing we said when working from home, be sure that you are working reasonable hours.
Okay. This is a little bit different. It can be attempting to work more while you have your work at home. However, it can also be taxing on your health and wellbeing. So stick to a schedule with healthy boundaries. And so when I work from home, before 2014, I was guilty of that because we had these routers that, that in our offices, our home offices.
So my computer was on 24 seven. So, you know, I’d be in the kitchen making, making some dinner or, you know, making a snack, whatever, watching TV. And I want to hear my email. Dang. And the next thing, you know, I’m in there working at nine o’clock at night, you know? Oh no. Oh yeah. So I would work a lot more just because my computer was always there.
And if I hear something come in, I’d go, you know, what is that? I’m going there and look, and next thing I know, I’m, I’m an hour into something, so yeah, you do have to set some healthy boundaries. And so these days I just cut my computer off, you know, five 30, six o’clock whenever I’m done, bam it’s off. And then I’ll turn it back on.
Then the next day.
Chris Gazdik: [00:48:51] Done is really done.
Craig Graves: [00:48:53] Do what
Chris Gazdik: [00:48:54] Don is really done.
Craig Graves: [00:48:55] Don’s done. That’s right. Don is absolutely done. this, this tract and redirect engage in activities that benefit your wellbeing. Bring you joy and distract you from existing challenges. This might include meditation and yoga, often offered free online.
You may also enjoy journaling reading art projects, cooking with new recipes, breathing exercises. Or listening to a calming podcast or music. We kind of talked about this last time with Josh. This is a great time to try some new stuff, you know, so if you’ve been willing to start meditating and hadn’t haven’t, and haven’t done it, now’s a great time to do that.
You know, it mentions yoga. I shared an article today on Yoda. It’s a great time to start a yoga practice. If you, if you, if you’re not doing that lots of classes, I mean, you can learn just about anything these days from. Online classes that are out there, pick up podcasting, you know, hopefully listening to hear and listen to our show, but there’s hundreds of thousands of great shows out there that you can, you can choose from.
So, yeah, pick up some
Chris Gazdik: [00:49:58] hobby. Let me ask you Craig. So I’m curious, you know, What if you got a list there and you kind of checked this article out and stuff, choose one or two of them that really stick out to you because there’s a lot of things there, you know, that, that I’m hearing you say, so there’s this kind of needle to learn a little bit to, to what, what do you think is kind of the most effective that you’re hearing and thinking about when you’re trying to kind of get, you know, help, help people, you know, get along with, with it, with being at home.
Craig Graves: [00:50:27] Know, I guess it depends on your mode is if you’re trying to calm yourself, you know, I would probably say implement some kind of breathing practice, you know, I don’t know if we’ve talked about, about breathing on the show or how I know we have, but like specific breathing exercises. Yeah. Look up Martin Divine’s box breathing video.
If you’re having trouble with anxiety and you want some breathing exercises to. To help with that. You know, if you’ve just always wanted to do something, if you’ve always wanted to read a book, you know, I want to read some Ernest Hemingway books. I’ve read a lot of books about Ernest Hemingway, but never any books by Ernest Hemingway.
So, you know, if you’ve got some project or if you want to start learning a foreign language, or if you’ve just got something you’ve always wanted to do, pick that up, you know? If you’re looking for a way to deal with the stress breathing, yoga is a good way to do that. I mean, there’s other things you can do talk about calming music and, you know, just, just pick something that you’ve always wanted to do or that you think will help you and, and just experiment with it.
Chris Gazdik: [00:51:27] Yeah. Okay. You know, honestly, one of those things I heard you kind of highlight there is his breathing. I don’t know how much time we’ve got, where are we at on time? Anyway, let me take a peak. I mean, you know, yeah. We probably need taxi in here soon. You know, when we talk about that a lot, I’m going to, I’m going to share with the audience you’re, you’re a, you know, we’re in a mastermind group together, right.
Where we were, we’re honest about that and the public, and, you know, you hear people talk about, you know, simple things that we could do and you give lip service to it. But the reality of it is, and I think that, you know, we were telling you on, on the group, at least I remember commenting to you, Craig really.
Express that with people, because we talk about breathing and I heard you say that a couple of times is what I’m kinda hearing the loudest from you to be calm and, you know, to take those breaths, people don’t know how to do that. They don’t know really the reality, the ins and outs of that. And when we spent some time in the mastermind group and you took us through that, and we actually did that.
Yeah, that’s impactful. And I don’t think you realize how much people don’t really realize what that is. So here, here to give a really practical thing, would you be willing to kind of talk about, well, what do you, what do you mean box breathing? What is that? How does that really work? Cause I don’t think people really know.
Craig Graves: [00:52:42] Yeah. Okay. So box breathing, box breathing is a, it’s a pattern of breathing. So. most folks start out with about four, a four count. I think I’m doing a five now, you know, in some cases six, but basically you breath all the air out and then you inhale to that four or five count when you get to the top of that four or five count you hold for the same count.
So five is five, five. Can you see my hand? Cause of the, the zooms messing up. so you inhale five, hold five, exhale, five, hold five, and then repeat. And then you do that for a certain amount of time and you’re doing deep diaphragmatic breathing. So you’re breathing down into your lower belly, right? If you put your hand on your stomach and you breathe in, you can feel your belly coming out, then your, your air is gonna, it’s gonna fill up the middle part of your lungs and eventually up into your chest.
And then when you exhale, you breathe out that same way. And what we can do, Chris, we can even do a Facebook live and I can do a little breathing class at some point for our, for our Facebook group. I
Chris Gazdik: [00:53:46] think that’s what we’re doing right now to a certain extent.
Craig Graves: [00:53:49] Yeah. I’m not going to go nicely, go through the practice right now.
We’ll, we’ll cover that later, but that’s, that’s kind of what that looks like. There’s, there’s not that much to it. And if any of you guys want to. Speak to me about it and then reach out, or Google Marc Devine box braiding on YouTube. And, and he can step you through that.
Chris Gazdik: [00:54:07] And I think my point is that, you know, it’s, it’s something that we take for granted, you know?
it’s something that we, we here. Yeah. I, I would venture to say everyone that hears this show around the world. It is going to say, Oh yeah, breathing is helpful. I’ve heard that before. It’s about practicing. It’s about doing that. It’s about understanding, you know, how that works in the moment. I can tell you when I’m really, really stressed out, you know, and something’s on my mind, you know, I’m not good at doing the structured total program like you’re talking about, but I will do that.
I would just.
I find that it just clears my mind out and, and settles me down. I can literally feel the butterfly in my stomach. Leave. My heart rate can decrease.
It just slows down, you know?
And, and when I teach clients that in sessions and whatever, sometimes they’re kind of like, Oh wow. Cause I can catch people right in the middle of it, the anxiety attacks. And we bring that level down. And, and I guess I’m just, just highlighting how effective that really is.
Craig Graves: [00:55:25] Oh, a lot of things to it.
It’s absent into your parasympathetic nervous system, which puts you in a more relaxed state. And here’s a visual of it. I don’t know if you guys can see this on the, on the, on the video, but you’re inhaling to a five count. You’re holding a five count, exhaling, a five count, and then holding a five count at the bottom, you know, and you can do between five and 20 minutes of that.a day… just kind of focusing on your breath 20 minutes.
Chris Gazdik: [00:55:54] Holy cow.
Craig Graves: [00:55:56] Well, you know, I’ve got a two minute one on my little app, but. When a thought comes up, which it will. Can you just let that thought go and go back to focusing on the breath and that’s, and that’s exactly how it works. Maybe I can go into more detail at a different time, but man, that thing works wonders.
That works wonders.
Chris Gazdik: [00:56:16] I think, I think we make a mental note and do that. Absolutely Craig because, you know, they really, this Facebook live thing kind of cool and people were popping in and out and getting different pieces out of it. But so it’s kind of neat and I think you’re right. We, you know, that would be a, that would be a fun thing to do.
How do we taxi in here before we, before I lose it? I did have a current event article. I told you about this for a show out and it’ll be on the show notes, but it is interesting here in North Carolina, this was in a, where was this? It was a newspaper article. I don’t know, it’ll be on the show notes somewhere, but it was just, it was just made me laugh because the headline is North Carolinians.
That’s us. I mean, North Carolina here, North Carolinians are tops for drinking on the job during pandemic survey findings. Yeah, man. Talk about staying at home. Well, the reality of it is people are absolutely… drinking it up. And during work hours, which people you can’t do that don’t don’t do that. I would say,
Craig Graves: [00:57:16] you know, dude, I don’t know.
I’ll saw some hillarious homeschooling names when his first then when his thing first started, you know, did you see those?
Chris Gazdik: [00:57:24] No, I didn’t. But check this out. This isn’t in the rooms of South Florida based website that hosts live video support groups has seen a dramatic rise in users as the coronavirus has forced addicts and alcoholics to shelter in their homes during their recovery, by in the rooms.
what else has say alcohol drug recovery meetings? Oh, they’ve moved online. I thought this had some numbers. Oh, this way. The survey released Monday question, nearly 13,000 workers in all 50 States and found 47.7 of the people working from home in North Carolina, admitted to drinking on the job, sexist stuff.
That was funny. you know, a little current event here at the end of this, but how do you wrap this up, mr. Graves? That’s
Craig Graves: [00:58:05] crazy. Got one more, one more thing to share, get creative, to stay connected. So share your tips with coworkers and friends on what’s working well for you and encourage them to do the same.
So share your experiences with your coworkers on what, what you’re doing. Is this working well for you? You know, That’s all I got Chris.
Chris Gazdik: [00:58:25] Alright, man. I’m not sure where we’re going next. No, I actually think I am. We need to get it scheduled, but, we have, actually I fell a Morgan James author, Morgan, James publishing, author, colleague of mine.
boy, I, I, we got a commitment, so I think I can make it pop a public. She’s going to come on and she’s going to do a show on the coronavirus and the pandemic effects on marriages. Right. Like,
Craig Graves: [00:58:49] yeah, she was,
Chris Gazdik: [00:58:51] well, I got the email today, evidently our next day. Well, actually you need to check your emails because I think we’re going to try to record it on Monday, the next recording week, but the Thursday doesn’t work, so it’ll be the Monday Facebook live people.
Maybe we’ll do this again. on that Monday, the whatever, may the may the chicken a couple of weeks, but nevertheless, she, she wants to come on and do that. And I think that’ll be a cool show to do because, you know, marriages are struggling. I can tell you that in this day and age and with what’s going on.
Craig Graves: [00:59:18] Yeah. Lots of, lot happening, you know, a lot happening.
Chris Gazdik: [00:59:23] Absolutely. So, I guess we’ll see you guys next week. love the Facebook live thing. I, I like it a lot. I’m probably going to have to keep on doing that in some form or fashion. so it’d be on the lookout for that and the comments helped the show and, and we enjoy that.
So, anything else, Craig, before we get out of here,
Craig Graves: [00:59:38] that’s it for me, man.
Chris Gazdik: [00:59:40] All right, guys. We’ll see you all next week.