We Are All Vibrators

I follow Marie Forleo because she's hilarious and shares great advice for people interested in becoming entrepreneurs and basically rocking out an awesome life. She hosts Q&A Tuesday's on Marie TV and every week she tackles a pertinent topic and/or question from her subscribers. I had fallen behind in watching her weekly videos but today I watched a few to catch up. Turns out that she recently posted on a topic related to the fact that our new McNair scholars will be presenting in just a few days - overcoming fear and shyness.

Click HERE to check out the short video. Scroll down to hit play.

Now, I realize that not everyone might feel as if they are shy, but I would venture to guess that most people (myself included) feel a bit of anxiety (or fear) before speaking in front of others. You have another practice session tomorrow - I invite you to check out this video by Marie to gather up three tips that just might help you reframe how you feel about presenting. The goal: be your best no matter what you are feeling.

Here's the gist:

• You are a vibrator. Your body is a mass of atoms. Stop associating your feelings (like nervousness or anxiety) with something bad. Just recognize that we all vibrate with different feelings and emotions - it's not good and it's not bad. By just experiencing what we are experiencing - without putting a label on it - we can simply experience it and move on. Easy peasy.

• Nickname your vibes. This one cracks me up but I think it can work. Instead of putting a name to your feelings like "I'm nervous" or "I'm scared" - call it something else - something light and funny. Josh uses the example of "shushi" - "I'm feeling shushi" - that's it! It reduces any negativity that might be associated with it and simply accepts that we are vibrating and feeling a bit of shushi at the moment. What name will you come up with?

• Ride it, don't hide it. Take any vibrations you might be experiencing when it comes to presenting and just see it as creative fuel - it's something that's going to propel you into action. Let that energy empower you instead of trying to downplay it. Try to speak authentically from whatever place you are finding yourself. Both Marie and Josh stress that if you allow yourself to feel whatever it is that you are feeling fully, it usually only lasts for seven to twelve seconds. That's all.

The bottom line - reframes can be really powerful in our lives.

Here's the challenge that Marie poses:

1. Tell us the sensation/emotion, that you struggle with most, that you would like to "overcome."
2. Describe the emotion in terms of vibrating atoms. What does it feel like?
3. Nickname your vibes and commit to riding it and not hiding it.

>>>>Be sure to click on this week's ACTIONABLE to complete the challenge.

Try this out when you practice your presentation this week and put it to use on Thursday at the symposium!

Tell Us About Your Research

This time of year can get a bit stressful for new scholars as they get ready to present their research proposals to their faculty research mentors. They've been working on this all semester so it's a real milestone and accomplishment along their McNair journeys. What's great is that they have an awesome "trio of support" in the form of Dr. Brooke Harrison, Dr. Shelly Hinck and Ms. Maureen Harke. These tremendous women have the scholars' best interests in hand and are ready to help formulate, massage and fine-tune the inner workings of their research presentations. They are also here to grow confidence. I personally love seeing our scholars evolve in their presentation abilities and styles between now and the fall when they present their actual research findings.

Here are some thoughts and recommendations that I would like to offer:

• Take full advantage by being prepared to practice your stuff.

• Let yourself shine!  We want to see your excitement - tell us why your work is important.

• Be sure to hit on the three most important points about your work - (1) give us context, (2) tell us what you are going to do and (3) what you are hoping to find.

• Less is more - don't overload the audience with content - stick to major points.

• Be professional but try to be relaxed too.

• Your audience is typically rooting for you and wants to hear what you have to say.

• Bust it out and put forward your best effort, but realize that this is PRACTICE and that in the end it really doesn't matter. Does that seem counter intuitive? Should I not be saying things like this?! Perhaps. But, it's my personal philosophy that you've probably heard before - we want all of you to do a great job and you will. This is just another step in the process. Outcomes don't matter that much as long as you know that you made your best effort.  Presenting can make people a little crazy (some actually stop breathing) - but the stress really isn't worth it. It's just a conversation about your work. Tell us about your research and chances are we are going to want to know more!

McNair scholars rock and you are all going to do great in your own sweet ways. Enjoy this! All of the sudden you are going to turn around and it will be time to start practicing for the fall.  :)

Speak Easy

Hi, all - thought you might enjoy the following piece on how yoga can help with public speaking - I felt it particularly relevant since most of you are exploring how yoga can improve your life on *many* levels and you are all getting ready to present your awesome research!  --lmc

Check out the following link or see below: http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/3120

Speak Easy

By Karen Macklin

If you're an anxious public speaker, don't panic. Yoga's tools for working with the breath and mind can help calm you when you have to give a speech or show up for a job interview. Performance anxiety occurs when your limbic system reacts to a stressful social situation as if you were in physical danger. You can stop the reaction, explains Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa, a professor at Harvard Medical School, by slowing your breath. In a study conducted from 2005 to 2007, Khalsa and psychotherapist Stephen Cope, who directs the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living in Lenox, Massachusetts, found that a regular yoga program that includes breathing practices helped young professional musicians control their performance fears.

Another way to ease your nerves is by focusing your attention, Cope says. "The more focused your concentration becomes on your task, the harder it is to be distracted by anxiety." Yoga's philosophical teachings help as well, Cope adds. Apply the lessons of a key text called the Bhagavad Gita: Be detached from the fruits of your actions. Do your best and devote the results to something greater, such as a higher power, your new career path, or the wedding guests eagerly awaiting your toast.

Cope, a frequent public speaker, uses this technique before going on stage: "I scan the audience to find someone who looks like they might need to hear what I have to say, and I offer my speech to them."

Yoga in Action: 6 Tips for Public Speakers

Reframe the Situation. If you can see the event as exciting rather than terrifying, you physiological response will be less intense.

Get Grounded. Feel your feet on the floor. Imagine them rooting into the earth, drawing your nervous energy into the ground.

Take Slow, Deep Breaths. Slowing your exhalations will immediately calm the nervous system.

Focus. Remember your task and focus on it the same way you might focus on a difficult yoga pose. Don't think about anything else.

Practice Awareness. If fearful thoughts do arise, simply watch them come and let them go; don't feed into them.

Let Go of the Outcome. Show up, do your best, and offer the fruits of your actions to something larger than yourself.

Take the Edge Off. For pre-performance tension, herbalist Carol Brzezicki of Sage Mountain Herbal Retreat Center in Vermont suggests oat seed extract. Put one or two dropperfuls in water and take it 30 to 60 minutes before showtime. High in minerals, this herb soothes without making you sleepy.

March 2012

Conference on College Composition and Communication

Well, on a much less philosophical note, I am preparing for a panel presentation that I applied for in December. I am one of two students (as well as the only undergraduate) on my panel discussing the racism and subjugation of Native people with the use of Native American imagery and likeness as mascots. Needless to say I'm starting to lose my mind thinking of all the details for travel, presentation information, talking with professors about upcoming absences, and the like.

However, I am thrilled that as an undergraduate I've had an amazing experience and have been pushed to my limits - only to excel further. :D

My mentor, Dr. Rose Gubele of the English Department, has been such an inspiration and such a strong force in my life. If it wasn't for Rose, I can't honestly say the things that I've accomplished this far would've happened.

So, moral of the story: even though things are all sorts of crazy as we're knee-deep in the semester, remember that the future can hold really beautiful and exciting experiences for you - so soak it all up and bask in the glory of being a McNair Scholar.

(side note: I honestly have friends in Graduate School across the county who repeatedly remind me how blessed I am as a McNair Scholar, and that they wish they would've applied or considered it.)

Take care, and pray I don't stutter too much! ;)