Brain Bites

A Semester of Wellness: Science and Strategies for Reducing Stress and Reenergizing Faculty and Staff

by Janet Zadina on 01/12/22

Four 75-minute sessions over a semester or school year. *

Faculty have undergone enormous stress as they and their family have struggled with a global pandemic while redesigning lessons to teach online.  But are you aware that the effects continue for years after a natural disaster is over? And this pandemic is not even over.  In fact, faculty are finding as they return to in-person classes that student behavior has become an issue and it is getting harder for them to teach.

As a result of vaccinations many are looking toward the future.  However, to have a successful future, faculty and staff must recover from the effects of stress so that they can think more clearly, be more productive, and inspire students. It is not whether you have stress that harms you.  The issue is whether you recover from these stressful episodes. Sometimes we experience traumatic situations that could, if not addressed, cause a lifetime of problems.  Research indicates that it is important to engage in recovery strategies as soon as possible after the trauma, but it is never too late to recover, renew, reduce, and rewire!

This series is designed to support faculty throughout the semester as they recover from the stress of the past year and a half and face new challenges.  Throughout the series attendees will acquire valuable information, learn and practice many strategies, interact with each other, and develop a wellness plan that will serve them for years to come.  It ends with positive science and strategies for resilience, happiness, and joy! 

Session Description 

If you are experiencing brain fog, lack of motivation, some difficulty regulating emotions, memory issues, and anxiety, then this program is for you.

Session 1: Recognize and recover:  Learn about how to recognize signs of stress and the science of how it affects the brain and body.  Learn how anxiety and stress affect frontal lobe executive functions critical to positive personal and professional outcomes. Acquire strategies for instantly recovering from the fight/flight/freeze reaction. Participate and experiment with various methods to find the one that works best for you.

Session 2:  Renew Discover how to reduce the brain fog, lack of motivation, memory issues, and emotional reactions that are normal reactions to high stress and trauma. Get your frontal lobes back “online” and working well.  Engage in a variety of activities to reduce stress to see what works best for you personally.

Session 3:  Reduce the stress in your life. Learn to recognize and understand how stress affects your body and how it can accumulate and progress to chronic problems so that you can intervene. Understand burnout and how to prevent it.  Discover what activities offer only distraction but do not reduce the effects of stress on your health and what activities allow for recovery and renewal.

Session 4: Rewire and become resilient: For over a year you have been firing and wiring pathways of anxiety, stress, and trauma.  Learn how to create new pathways of positivity. Acquire strategies to create more happiness and become resilient.

Regrowth: Discover the secrets of post-traumatic growth.  Learn how to come out of this pandemic stronger and better than before. Create a plan for a wellness lifestyle. Finally, engage in an experiential activity to increase heart coherence and help you connect your heart energy to yourself and others.  Finish the course with lots of strategies and renewed optimism and energy.

Each session will have a recommended book to read as a follow-up.  If an attendee reads the suggested books and attends the session, it would be equivalent in content to a semester course. The institution may offer CEU’s for this program if they wish.

Reading the book is not necessary to achieve benefits of this program. Fee does not include the recommended books.  The use of the books would be up to each individual participant unless the institution wanted to pick one or more for all faculty to read.

4 sessions = 5 hours + unlimited number of attendees:  $5000

*Series is available to all faculty and staff employed by the institution providing the program. If the number of attendees is over 300, an additional fee of $150 will be added to upgrade the zoom program for the larger number of attendees.

The session may not be recorded or captured in any format. It is for a one-time synchronous workshop only at this affordable fee. 

Please contact janetzadina@gmail.com for further information.