The Moos Room™

[music]
[cow lows]
Emily: Welcome, everybody, to The Moos Room. OG3 here for this episode. I am particularly excited because we are officially kicking off another May, Mental Health Awareness Month, here on The Moos Room.
Bradley: [lows] Moo.
Emily: [chuckles] I know that mental health can sometimes be a really scary and uncomfortable topic to talk about, but you may recall that last year, we did a series of episodes about mental health for the month of May, and those were really well-received episodes. I do believe some of them are some of our most listened-to episodes as well. We had a lot of fun doing that. You all know that I'm such a big advocate for mental health, and I think a really important thing is just talking about it and exploring some of the different intricacies and nuances of it as well.
We are really excited to be back to offer you another series of mental health episodes for the month of May.
Joe: I'm excited as well, and I know Emily is working hard to get us guests and get everything lined up so that this can be different topics than last year and building on everything we talked about last year. It's not going away. As the pandemic changes and evolves and how everything works, there's new topics, and we can't forget how important this topic is to farmers around the state and around the country. Just because some of the biggest challenges we faced in the last couple of years are petering out and we're figuring out how life works now, doesn't mean that these problems have gone away.
Emily: Right, absolutely. We need to remember that these problems were here before the pandemic, and the pandemic definitely exacerbated some of these problems and shined a light on others. Yes, this is a conversation that we need to keep having and that here on The Moos Room, we will continue to have, not just because I forced Joe and Brad, but also because they do see the importance of this topic as well.
Joe: We do.
Bradley: It's also good for us to think about it sometimes. I just told Joe and Emily a few minutes ago, it affects all of us, and even health challenges even for your kids or other things, so it's at the forefront of all of our minds.
Emily: Right. Whether we are willing to admit that or not, it is always at the forefront. Good point, Brad. Really, really quickly. Before we get into talking about mental health and teeing up the month of May for us, Joe and I just got some really exciting news from Bradley. Bradley has officially been promoted to full professor with the university. Congrats, Bradley.
Joe: [cheers]
[laughter]
Bradley: I don't know what that means now, but sure, I'm just the same old Brad, everybody blames me for everything. Sure. Fine. Yes, go do good things [crosstalk]--
Joe: We're just blaming a full professor now. That's different.
Emily: Yes.
Bradley: I'm still me, still the same person. We're just going to keep doing what I'm doing.
Emily: Yes. Well, congratulations, Brad.
Bradley: Thank you.
Emily: It is a big deal in the world of academia. We were very excited, and we're very proud of you. Had to give you that little shout-out there. All right, so now shifting back to, well, I would say a more serious topic. I don't think mental health always needs to be serious and doom and gloom and sad. A lot of our mental health too comes from good things and being happy, and taking care of ourselves, and finding the joy in life, and having gratitude, and all those good things.
Today we're going to kick off May, Mental Health Awareness Month, with a little bit of a mental health potpourri as it were [crosstalk]--
Joe: Potpourri.
Emily: Say it, Bradley.
Bradley: Potpourri.
Emily: [groans]
Bradley: I know, so depressing.
Joe: Potpourri.
[crosstalk]
Emily: I know, Joe, you had a really interesting question, and you've been thinking about something as it relates to mental health. I'm going to have you kick it off, tell me what's been on your mind, and I'll do my best. Dr. Frasier Crane impression.
Joe: One of the things that I think about a lot, and I thought about this in private practice a lot because it really does make a difference for how an interaction or a relationship goes when we're talking about cattle health, or we're talking about anything related to farming or personal life, is setting expectations and what is really the proper way to approach that.
On the medicine side, we always set expectations low. We're trying to set everything up so that expectations are correctly set for the outcome that we think is going to happen so that people are prepared for all the different possibilities and that as they move forward, they're mentally in the right space and they're not surprised by anything that could happen.
I think that's a huge piece of farming as well, when we talk about feedlot, cow-calf, crops, it doesn't matter. If your expectations don't match what happens, that could be good or bad. If you have low expectations and then you exceed those-- so a lot of times, I think that's what people recognize as the best outcome when we talk about expectations. Whereas the other way around is having expectations that are too high and then not even having the possibility of achieving those, which gives you that feeling of hopelessness once you realize that your expectations didn't match what was going to happen.
I guess my biggest question is trying to figure out, okay, how do I approach this topic of expectations? Is it really appropriate to set them really, really low? Because I feel like at some point, you have to balance having something to drive for, a goal to get to, but also making that realistic. I guess that's my big question is how to approach this topic of expectations when it comes to anything, including exercise or anything that you do personally as well.
Emily: I really liked that question, Joe. When you first brought this up to me before we got on here today, I did start thinking about that a lot because expectations are certainly something that we all set. I think that they're just an inherent part of being human. I do know in my own personal journey and in maintaining my mental health and all of that, expectations have been a big part of that. That is something that with my therapist, we talk about on a very regular basis.
Before I start answering, I just want to remind people here that my degrees are in animal science and agricultural education, not therapy, or counseling services, or psychology or what have you, so a lot of this is opinion and lived experience and not necessarily the science and the theoretical background of it. I do think that there are some common things around expectations that we can all agree on regardless of if we have a degree or what our degree is in.
You bring up a really interesting point, Joe, in that we have this dichotomy of expectations. It's either, yes, kind of that, I'm going to set expectations really low so that it is either; A, easier to achieve; or B, if I don't quite get there, or I can just get past it. Then we have people who set expectations extremely high. For many people, they do that as a means of motivating themselves. I think of even us within our work. A big example of this. A lot of us, we do grant-funded work. When you're applying for these grants, you need to say, "These are going to be my outcomes, my deliverables," and so you need to set some expectations for that.
Of course, you typically try to aim a little bit higher, in part so that you get the grant, let's be honest about that, but yes, there is, like I said, and with this dichotomy, you sometimes are not necessarily setting yourself up for failure, but you do need to be able to temper your expectations with reality and also be willing to adjust your expectations. That's probably the most important thing I can say is that your expectations can be adjusted. That is okay. Here is me, I am absolving anybody listening of the pressure you may feel that you cannot adjust your expectations. You absolutely can.
Part of that, and this is something that I really work on personally with my own therapist, is about, again, tempering your expectations with a little bit of grace. You can have high expectations. That is absolutely okay. That's how I run. I've always been a shoot-for-the-moon type, but yes, at times when I haven't always reached those expectations, it's really easy for me to have negative self-talk and tell myself I have failed or whatever it might be. It's really easy for us to just kind of default into negative thoughts when things maybe don't go the way we thought they would or hoped that they would.
We also need to remember that whenever we're setting expectations, we're setting them for ourselves, but we're also setting them up against a bunch of different things that we can't control. If you have an expectation for getting into your field on a certain day on the calendar every year, which I think we all know some farmers like that, you have to remember that you're setting that expectation against these uncontrollable factors, like the weather, and even up against your own personal life. If you have a family emergency, or you get sick or injured, that might change your schedule a little bit.
Be mindful that you can set an expectation, but also it can have that little star by it of, this is the expectation, but I know that there are other factors outside of my control that may impact what happens. That's been a really big lesson for me to learn in that. It's just understanding that it is not always going to happen, and that is not always a direct result of what you as an individual did or didn't do.
Joe: I like that. I know that that's difficult for a lot of people to do when we're setting expectations or goals based on what's happening. I like using ranges. I think that helps a lot for me, personally. I like using historical data. We talked about that when we were talking about, with Brad, in grazing last week and trying to overcome that impatience of getting out to grass. He has historical data that says, okay, middle of May, May 12th to 15th is when cows go to grass. That helps the expectation be like, okay, even though I'm impatient, and it's end of April, and the weather is garbage, I still got two to three weeks to wait. I know that I got to wait because historically, that's what it is.
That's where I think benchmarking and things like that really helps me most often. When we're talking about producers, whether it's dairy or beef, the purpose of historical data for your farm and then using that to benchmark yourself with other farms is really to say, "Okay, what are my realistic expectations for success and the numbers I can produce on my farm?" That makes it nice when you have that historical data or benchmarking or be able to compare.
What I struggle with in my personal life is, okay, I'm starting something new. I have zero idea of what's going to happen, and data I have is outdated. The last time I would say I was in excellent shape, run for miles, lift anything that I came across, that was a long time ago. My mind is, those are my expectations, but I'm over 30 now. I have a kid. I don't sleep as well as I used to. It's hard to change my mind to say, "Okay. Well, maybe I can't work out seven days a week. That's just not realistic anymore. When I go into the weight room, I shouldn't be lifting heavy weights anymore. It's just not necessary." It's hard to change my mind based on the historical data that's outdated now.
Emily: Yes, and I get that 100%, Joe. That can apply to a lot of different areas, but in your example, you're tying it to physical activity, working out. What's interesting about that too is that's really a piece of self-care and of taking care of yourself. I think that when we have those things in mind too, we tend to set our expectations really high. Because if we're trying to get a new routine going, or lose some weight, or get more sleep, or lift heavier in the gym, whatever it is, it's so easy to set these really lofty goals and have this absolute thinking, this all-or-nothing attitude. "If I can't get to this, I have failed." You know what? That's a really, really good way to set yourself up to fail.
Our expectations, we can segment them a little bit. This goes back to goal-setting 101 is when you have this really big goal, instead of just setting that as, "This is what I'm working towards and it's only that," what are some little goals or little checkpoints that I can have along the way? For weightlifting, if I'm going to have a goal of deadlifting 300 pounds, I'm not going to go to the gym tomorrow and try to deadlift 300 pounds. I probably would break my back, 100%. Instead, it's, where can I start? Okay, I can comfortably get 205 pounds up. What's the next goal? Maybe it's 225, and then it's 250. That 300 is always dangling there, like that's my carrot, but I have those other little goals along the way that I'm going to work on first. My mindset is not 300 pounds. The mindset is 250 pounds or whatever it might be. Again, we're using weightlifting as an example here.
Again, just tempering your expectations, and understanding that, like Joe was talking about, sometimes we set our expectations really low just so that we can reach them. That's okay. When we reach our goals or do something we've been trying to do for a while, our brain releases all those happy chemicals. You get your dopamine and your endorphins and your serotonin and all that great stuff, and that's okay. Absolutely do that. Set some lower expectations. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a matter of making sure you're doing what works for you.
Of course, yes, if you feel like, oh, I'm always setting my expectations low so that I can always be like, "I did a good job," or I can always reward myself or do that, then it's maybe time to bump it up a little bit. Bump it up a notch. Too, I have to say, and I say this about everything, I feel like, with mental health, everybody is different. I think another thing with expectations is remembering that you are not somebody else, and learning to balance that expectations with comparing yourself with other people, which we all do, and a lot of it we can't even help. It just happens automatically. You don't know their whole story, they don't know your whole story, so you also need to really be mindful of that piece as well.
Joe: I want to hear from Bradley here, who over the last couple of years lost 30, 35 pounds. How did that all start, Brad? Did you have that big goal in mind right away, or did you just start segmented and say, "Oh, I'm going to lose 10 pounds," and then it just snowballed? How did that all work?
Bradley: It was a slow process. It wasn't necessarily fast. It really started, and maybe exacerbated by the early part of the pandemic, but you look in the mirror one day and go, "Holy smokes, this is not me. I'm 30 pounds overweight. I travel too much. Life is just a blur." You start thinking about other things, the future, your children. Joe, you have kids too. Sometimes those of us that have children, that comes to the forefront all the time. You start thinking about all that and other people. It's for yourself, but it's for others too.
I went at a slow process to do that. I didn't really have any goals. I didn't. I just wanted to have myself feel better, feel better about me, and it just happened. I feel much better and probably have better mental health than what I did two years ago because of that. It's not easy. I still keep going, still struggle with those aspects, but it is better in the long run.
Joe: I feel like that's how anytime, yes, exercise-related or weight loss-related that everything's gone really well is that it's been a slow start, gradual start with increasing expectations for yourself as you go. You just need to do something, anything, rather than sitting at your computer all day. It's walk. Just walk once a day, or hit the bike once a day, anything. While you watch your Netflix show at the end of the day, you're riding the bike instead of sitting on the couch. Just something really small.
Like what Emily was talking about, having these segmented goals. It takes a lot of self-reflection to realize that when you say, "Oh, okay. On Monday, I'm going to start working out five days a week, and I'm going to do cardio every morning," that's not really realistic.
Bradley: Right. Even, I think, some of it that perks our mental health a little bit is just being in the sunshine. I've done that probably a lot more than what normally-- I don't sit around in my office as much. Just going outside, getting some natural Vitamin D really helps with- in my mind, has helped with my mental health as well is just getting some sunshine. Up here in the Upper Midwest, it seems it's cloudy every day. When I can get out in the sunshine and enjoy that, it makes you feel better.
Emily: Yes. Vitamin D does help you with your serotonin levels, so that's why being in the sunshine is good for you. Something I want to get to, Joe, that you just mentioned, and you probably saw me nodding and getting excited. That was you were talking about having these expectations, and if you're setting them a little too high or even too low that you said you need to be honest with yourself. I think that that is really important, and that is just checking in with yourself, being reasonable. Maybe at times, being that devil's advocate for yourself is saying, "Starting Monday, I'm going to work out five days a week. Is that really reasonable? Is that really achievable?"
Because sometimes too, if you set your expectations too high and then you don't achieve them, then instantly you're just like, "All right, I quit. I give up. I can't do it." That is something that, especially when we're talking about these self-care pieces, taking care of yourself, is going to the gym five days a week reasonable? Or is saying, "I'm going to move my body intentionally 10 minutes a day." Or saying, "I'm going to try to get to the gym once this week. If I go one day a week, do it. Then next week, I'll try to go two days." Just really being honest with yourself and again, giving yourself that grace.
This is something too that I work a lot with my therapist on is that your expectations will also adjust just based on what else is happening. About a year and a half ago-- I think our listeners know this or most of them do. About a year and a half ago, my dad was in the hospital, and he was in Rochester, which is where I live. Due to COVID restrictions, he could only have one person that was a regular visitor, and because I lived in Rochester, that person was me. During that time, I really had to adjust my expectations.
I am somebody who's usually in the gym five days a week because with my schedule and the other things in my personal life, I'm able to manage that, but during that time, I was dedicating a lot of, especially my emotional capacity, mental capacity to my dad. I had to take a step back. There was a week where I didn't go to the gym at all because it's like, I am tired. I am dealing with a lot of emotions, and that also impacts my physical health. I didn't feel like I was failing myself or anybody else. It was just a matter of, I had to give my attention and my bandwidth to some other things for that. It was 10 days my dad was in the hospital.
Also, knowing that you need to really be agile and be willing to be fluid with that too. Because it's like you have enough stress on your plate already if you have a sick family member or something else you're dealing with. Then also going, okay, and I'm going to pile on to that by being really hard on myself for not getting to the gym this week; it's also in my mind, you have to make those decisions so that you have some peace. I told myself, "Yes, it's a bummer, I'm not getting to the gym, but I am able to dedicate my time to my dad."
Then too, it was also reshuffling some of those expectations that, "What am I doing to take care of myself right now? Okay, maybe it's not getting to the gym every day, but am I getting eight hours of sleep? Am I eating?" If you've ever had a family member in the hospital, you know how some of those things-- you absolutely forget to eat. You absolutely do not think about how much you're sleeping. Keeping myself healthy was less on that higher level, going to the gym, hitting my macronutrients every day. It really went back to just those baseline things to take care of yourself.
You need to be willing to do that. Again, that's where being honest with yourself and checking in with yourself comes into play too, of just going, "Hey, I am a human, and I know that I cannot do all of this at once." Yes, it's hard, but again, I brought myself so much peace just in giving myself some of that grace, and also reminding myself that I'm not going to derail everything by not going to the gym for a week. People who have worked out, or like Brad was talking, losing weight, those are things that they happen gradually over time. It took you maybe two years to get to your peak level of health. You are not going to completely digress and lose two years of progress in one week. That's not how it works. That's not how time works.
Just remembering some of that too. You can take a break from the path. You can step off the path and recover for a few days. The path will still be there waiting for you when you're done.
Joe: We've brought up a couple of different things in this whole process. Emily talking about a lot of self-reflection, being honest with yourself, finding that peace at the end of the day. I think one of the tools that is a little misunderstood, and especially for me for a long time, is meditation. If you're willing, Em, we should get into Meditating with The Moos Room, if you will, about what does it actually mean to meditate, what does that look like, and dispelling the myth that as soon as I say that word, I know what image is coming into everybody's mind. Walk us through that a little bit.
Emily: Yes, and I would say some meditation myth-busting is always necessary. I think when we hear the word meditation, we all get this really specific image in our mind. Everybody's is a little bit different, but there's probably some shared similarities between all of them. Like I said before we started recording today, meditation is not this shaman sitting in this steam room with the legs crossed and, "Aum." For some people, that can be meditation, but it's more than that.
Specifically, for me, when I think of meditation, I think of the Disney movie The Lion King, the '90s animated one, when Rafiki, I think he's a baboon, he is meditating, and he has his palms up and legs crossed. You know what? Some people meditate that way and that is so awesome for them. I will admit, I have tried it. That's not the way that works for me. Again, I'm not an expert on this, but meditation, I have found, is just really simply the practice of being able to clear your mind.
A lot of people think like, "Oh, well, I can't make my mind go blank. I have this internal monologue that's constantly going," and this and that. It's not necessarily about that. A lot of meditation uses visualization, so you are still thinking about something. It's not just like, oh, I need to make my mind go blank and black. It's also not letting other thoughts invade that time that you're meditating.
An example, and this is a more traditional method of meditation, so that's a guided meditation. You're listening to a recording, and the person on that recording is giving you different cues. It might be something like, you're walking through a forest, or you're walking on a beach. It gives you that nice visualization so again, you have something. It's not just blank, black, emptiness. Then they'll say things like, "Oh, as you're walking along, if you start having thoughts come into your mind about your day, or what you're going to make for dinner, or what happened at work, it's a matter of recognizing that that's the thought you're having, but not letting it overtake the experience you're having right now." You acknowledge that the thought is there, and then you continue to move on from it.
Because again, just like I was saying with stepping off the path; with meditation, you're not getting rid of those thoughts completely. You're just taking a temporary break from them. Figuring out what to make for dinner, that will still be there when you're done. You can get to that in five minutes time. That's okay. Also, I find meditation, people do it for an hour, people do it for 30 seconds, really wide range. Even things like doing deep breathing exercises, that's a form of meditation, where you're really just focusing on what your breath feels like going in and out of your body. I use a lot of different phrases with it interchangeably. You're regrouping or you're just resetting.
Also, this ties to something that's become a little more popular, the phrase grounding. I really prefer grounding to meditation. I think there are some similarities, there are some differences, but again, it's about bringing yourself back into the present moment, reminding yourself where you are, what you're doing. Grounding is really useful when you just feel really overwhelmed, or you're not sure what you're supposed to be doing next, or you're in a really-- whatever, chaos reigns. If there's chaos, grounding can really help you sort through that chaos. Again, it's not something that needs to be really, really long. It can be really quick.
We'll give a couple of examples. A grounding exercise that I like to do, especially if I'm feeling really overwhelmed, that could be work, that could be I maybe just got some bad news, whatever it is, and you just need to bring yourself back to the present moment and remind yourself where you are. A grounding exercise you can do is I call it a senses' inventory. You're going to tap into each of your five senses, and you can assign different numbers and things, but I usually tell people, "You're going to list off in that moment, what are five things you can see?" I'm sitting at my desk right now. I see my water bottle. I see a pen. I have a little painting of flowers on my desk. I see a box of tissues, and I see my computer screen.
Then we're going to move on to four things that we can feel or that we can touch. I can touch the headphones that are on my head right now. I can touch my desk. I can grab my water bottle. I can feel the softness of the tissues I have on my desk. Then we just keep going. What are three things that you can hear? I hear my washing machine going. I can hear the cars driving by on the street outside. You do that. Then it's, what are two things that you can smell? One thing that you can taste? Again, it's just tapping into each one of your senses within the environment you're in, in that moment, just to remind you of where you are.
Even just doing that and talking through it now, I have this hyper-awareness of where I am. I'm in my apartment, in my home office, but that's something that even just doing that right now, all right, I feel more calm and a lot more focused because in that moment, that's what I was doing. That's the only thing I was paying attention to. That's what I was giving all my thought and attention to.
Grounding can also just be really simple. One thing I like to do is take some deep breaths and as I'm doing that, I say to myself, "I am here." Usually, as I inhale, I'm saying, "I am," and as I exhale, I'm saying, "Here." That's, again, a way that I like to do just a quick reset on days where maybe you're going from one thing to the next nonstop, but you'll still have just that little brief moment of time if you're driving somewhere, or you have that minute where you run to refill your coffee between meetings, whatever it is. Just taking 10 seconds to remind yourself, "I am here. I am going to show up at this next thing present, and I'm going to set aside right now what just happened or the last meeting I had so that I can be present in this new one."
Again, just focuses back on, like we were talking about when Joe mentioned, checking in with yourself. Just taking that time to recognize what's happening with both your mind and body, to me that is meditation
Joe: Farmers have zero time in their day, or at least it feels that way most days. The key is to remember that this doesn't have to be that, okay, I'm going to take an hour out of my day and do nothing. You can do this while you milk, in between groups of animals, or you're waiting for units to come off. You can do this while you're driving. I used to do it while I was driving all the time. When I was in practice, between farms, you're pretty much on automatic pilot while you're driving, and you just take a moment to reset. Grounding is really a great term for it.
This can happen a lot of different places. I think for a lot of people who are milking every day, milking for them is a form of meditation because you're not concentrating on anything else except for milking procedure, putting units on, taking units off, knowing the cows. I think that's why people miss it when they stop milking because it's a form of meditation, twice a day, that forces you to reset because you can't focus on anything else most of the time, and you have a lot of time for self-reflection during that time. You can see that.
When you come to a barn that's milking, especially old Thai-style barn that comes to mind right away, come in, lights are pretty dim and it's dead silent. Everyone's just focusing on their job. As the day gets going, that first 20 minutes of milking is real quiet. Everybody's focusing on their job, they're setting themselves up for success for the day. Then it gradually picks up, and everyone starts joking and talking to each other again. That little piece of meditation, I think is something that people miss. You can find that. You can do that yourself. It does take some practice to make sure that you can reset and ground that way.
I think a lot of people use it to fall asleep as well. You'd walk through whatever you're going to do or the story you make up in your head that allows you to fall asleep, or you work from your toes to your head and relax every single muscle in your body. That's all forms of meditation. They don't have to be in a sweat lodge with your shirt off, making weird noises, cross-legged. That works for some people, but that doesn't have to be how it works.
I used to walk through a DA surgery when I was really overwhelmed. I used to do so many of them. You just start picturing in your mind all the steps of that DA surgery and how it works. For me that was a way to focus and ground and reset because it was something, just like milking, that I did so much, it was just autopilot thinking about the steps. I think there's all sorts of ways to incorporate in life without taking an hour out of your day to do it.
Emily: Absolutely. The thing I really like about meditation too is, yes, there's a lot of different ways to do it, and you do what works for you. It is not this big event, production. Some people are maybe a little embarrassed to admit that they meditate or are meditating. You know what? The great thing about meditation is you can do it when it works for you, and you don't need to tell people what you're doing. Because it's all just about this conversation, these thoughts that you have with yourself.
I remind people too that you control your thoughts, you control how you show up to your day. Meditation is a really great way to make sure that you show up in the right way and in the way that's best and healthiest for you as well.
Joe: We even brought this up on the podcast before. One of the things that we've talked about as a tool, and I think is a great place to start for meditation, is box breathing. Emily has talked about that before. There's all sorts of apps out there that can help you with box breathing on your phone and lead you through it. I think that's a good place to start, Emily, if you want to talk about box breathing.
Emily: I am just going to lead you through a box breathing exercise. Right now, we're going to do a meditation. You are going to meditate with The Moos Room. For box breathing and any sort of deep breathing exercise, the most important thing is getting your body set up in a way that allows you to really get a good breath in. If you are able right now, I would invite you to sit up or stand up straight. If you are sitting, uncross your legs, have your feet be flat on the floor, make sure that your back is straight, you have your shoulders back a little bit because that will really allow your lung space to open up so you can get a good, full, deep breath.
Box breathing is really simple. Think of a box, four sides, and we're going to do four things for four seconds each. To start-- and I'll talk you through it, and then I'll guide you through it first. When I tell you to inhale, I want you to breathe in through your nose for four seconds, and then we're going to hold our breath like that for four seconds. Then you're going to slowly exhale through your mouth for four seconds, and then just sit and rest for four seconds. That completes the four sides of our box. Then we will repeat that a second time.
Some people also find deep breathing is more effective if they're able to close their eyes so they can take away that visual stimuli. If you are driving or operating a piece of farm equipment right now, please do not close your eyes. If you are not doing those things or sitting somewhere and you feel comfortable closing your eyes, you're welcome to do so.
Again, make sure that your body is relaxed but up straight. Just to start, breathe in through your nose, 2, 3, 4, hold it, 2, 3, 4, out through your mouth, 2, 3, 4, and rest, 2, 3, 4. One more time. In through your nose, hold it, out through your mouth, and rest. All right, you can open your eyes back up. Whenever I do this with people, I always ask them, don't you feel just the tiniest bit better? Tiniest bit? Let's see. That was 32 seconds we just did, and in 32 seconds, you can just, again, reset, renew, get ready to go. The really nice thing about box breathing too is that it's free, it's easy, and you literally have to do it anyways. [chuckles] That's what I think makes it a really, really easy exercise.
Since we are meditating with The Moos Room, I do want to take you through one more style of meditation. This is one I talked about before, and that's a guided meditation. For this one too, I am setting a timer on my phone. We're going to do this one for just 30 seconds, and I just want you to focus on listening to my voice. I'm going to put on my calm meditation voice for you all. Again, with this, close your eyes if you are able or comfortable doing so. Do not close your eyes if you are driving or operating a piece of machinery right now. Then I'll just walk you through some cues.
To start, once again, make sure that you're sitting up straight, close your eyes if you're comfortable doing so, and just breathe at your regular pace, and just feel what that air feels like going in and out of your body. As we sit here, we're going to think about our day. Think about something that we are grateful for today. What is something that brings your life joy, that brings meaning to your day? Think about that one thing, and in your mind, say thank you. Express your gratitude. As we do that, we're going to continue to think about the things we're grateful for in our life. We're going to take a deep breath in through our nose and out through our mouth. We're going to do one more, breathe in through our nose, and as we exhale, we are going to open our eyes and be present and be ready to take on the rest of our day.
There you go. All right, that was longer than 30 seconds. That was about a minute.
Joe: All good.
Emily: You can see how quickly it goes. I'm curious. Brad and Joe, I've never taken you through a meditation like that before. How did it feel? How do you feel now?
Bradley: I feel good. I feel much better. The second one makes you just think and--
Joe: Feel better, more relaxed. I've done some meditation with a heart monitor on before and looking at that number to see if I can make it lower and it always does, every single time. I think coming out of the meditation, I always feel relaxed regardless of what's going on. The activity of thinking about something that you're not always thinking about, but it's always in the back of your mind and you bring it to the front, that, like I said, reset button just kicks everything out for a second and you can feel like you're ready to start your day for real.
Emily: Again, I prefer guided meditation. If I'm meditating for myself, I usually don't guide myself because my mind wanders and I let other thoughts intrude on the experience. Yes, there are a ton of free apps out there with guided meditation. There are also YouTube videos, and that's something I use a lot. You could literally just go on YouTube and type in, three-minute meditation, and you'll find something. Those are really nice because you just hit play and you can just zone out and get walked through the process, and that's really, really great.
I think with that, that is a wrap on our first episode for May, Mental Health Awareness Month. Hopefully, you enjoyed this little potpourri sampler. We have a lot of exciting things coming up this month. We're going to have some great guests and have some more really great, sometimes difficult, but always helpful conversations. If you have any questions, comments, scathing rebuttals, you can email those to themoosroom@umn.edu.
Joe: That's T-H-E-M-O-O-S-R-O-O-M@umn.edu.
Emily: If you prefer to share your thoughts with your lovely voice, we do have a voicemail. You can call into the show at 612-624-3610 and leave us a message, and you may be featured on a future episode of The Moos Room. You can find us on Twitter @UMNmoosroom and @UMNFarmSafety, and you can find more information as always at our website, extension.umn.edu. Be well. Bye
Joe: Bye.
Emily: Bradley?
Bradley: Bye-bye.
Emily: [groans]
[music]
[cow lows]

1