Show notes –
Join Shannon & Christine as they chat about occupational wellness this week with special guest Maryam Jordan from Mosaic Georgia.
This week’s resources and references:
Show Transcript –
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
Christine Gautreaux 0:08
Let’s do this.
Shannon M. 0:08
Okay ladies, welcome to our podcast. I am Shannon Mitchell, a black female, millennial entrepreneur, the founder of shallow glow, a handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self care, business care and intentional wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:25
And I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself in community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Yes. And together we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. Welcome, welcome to our show.
Christine Gautreaux 0:44
Yeah, we love to get together every week and have intentional conversations around how to be wise in business relationships, and life in we like to introduce y’all to some pretty amazing guests, which we have one today, too. So, so excited. Right, we’ve been prepped we’ve been, I don’t want to give any spoiler alerts. But we’re also working on season four, what, which is rhetoric. And you’ll, you’ll see what today like, we have had some phenomenal guests all the way like, I just I love how many amazing women we are connected to.
Shannon M. 1:21
I mean, through this podcast, I had gotten work during quarantine, I got my life insurance set up. You know what I mean? I have access to a Profit First accountant, which I might need help with soon and outsourcing that. And I love the system that she uses in her company. So I’m excited to be connected in can you growing growing the the group of women? Yes. All right.
Christine Gautreaux 1:45
It’s so much fun. Yeah. And we’re having some interesting conversations too, over at women connected in wisdom, our community. So you’re also welcome to come join us over there. We’re on mighty networks. And it is a place to get connected to women. And it is a place to like if you got a new idea, like run it by us. If you have a new class you want to come try out. So you have some people that are will greet you with grace and joy, I would say and be supportive. So
Shannon M. 2:17
yeah, and it’s important not only to get feedback, but also specific feedback. That’s why I love that we cover all eight dimensions, right? So if you have a course or an idea that’s specific to social or specific to something physical, maybe we already have the woman in here we were teaching a class or have resources that could be free or, you know, definitely plugged into exactly what you need. So that’s that’s why I love being part of this group because it helps me do everything else. Right?
Christine Gautreaux 2:48
Well, we’re talking about occupational wellness today, Shannon. So will you remind our listeners, what occupational wellness is?
Shannon M. 2:56
Absolutely. So occupational wellness represents the feeling of purpose and productivity in one’s chosen profession. This pillar is certainly a key element to what we refer to as work life balance, as an enriched and productive professional life is certainly required to mesh with a healthy personal life
Christine Gautreaux 3:16
and love that work life balance in an enriched and productive professional life. Man, it
Shannon M. 3:24
sounds so simple, but
Christine Gautreaux 3:29
like we know, as most women are caregivers, not to say that men are but statistics show that most women are caregivers, whether they’re caregiving, pets, children, neighbors, adults, very, a lot of I know, women in my age range are sandwich generation. So they’re parenting both children and adults, caregiving, not parenting both can feel like that sometimes. But yeah, so doing that, which is a lot of times unpaid work, in addition to our professions, and occupations. Yeah, it’s hard sometimes.
Shannon M. 4:13
And the time is, is the thing for me, right? When I was working in the restaurant, people say, either I’m working or I’m off, right. And when you’re off, you have free time. And the problem with the word free is when you use the word free, you start thinking it’s free, and it is absolutely not, you know, so you’re a woman. You know, we know women historically have statistically been the caregivers. That’s a lot of hours in life about opportunity cost and everything else that goes into taking care of the people that we love. So for me in occupational wellness, the balance of time, is what I absolutely did not have when I started my management experience, and that I’m really intentional about now as I have my own business and do all this other stuff. Yeah, right?
Christine Gautreaux 5:02
Well, and I had a teacher one time tell me that, you know, balance is often an unrealistic goal. But it’s the journey towards balance that I don’t remember if I’ve talked about it on this podcast before or not. But before the pandemic, I would do retreats once or twice a year. And there was this one retreat years ago, up in the Appalachian Mountains. And we were on a hike. It was a small hike. And I jumped up on this rock, and I did this one, I think it was a swan pose from yoga. And it’s one I was standing on one foot, I was balanced on this rock, and one of my participants and friends in the retreat, snap that picture. And I use that picture for years because it literally in that one, two seconds caught me in balance. And reality is I fell off the rock almost immediately. You know, it is the reality is it’s hard to maintain balance or perfect balance or what it is. But it’s that goal in the striving towards it. And and as our guests, we’re going to talk with our guests in a little bit we’re going to talk about when there’s trauma involved in the workplace, you know, whether it’s that’s your work, you know, I have worked for years in places that can that deal with people going through trauma. And as our guest does today and talking about how do we do that when we are either in personal trauma ourselves, or when we work with folks who are going through trauma, which I think it’s an important conversation to have. So, so should we introduce her?
Shannon M. 6:46
Of course, I’m excited. I’m excited to talk I get
Christine Gautreaux 6:49
excited every time. So, um, this next guest y’all is a community member and a neighbor and a new friend to me, but I am so delighted to introduce y’all to her. I’m gonna I’m gonna read her official bio, so I don’t I don’t mess it up here. Miriam Jordan is responsible for our professional education and training services. She has been working at Mosaic Georgia since September of 2019, and provides training and educational programs for medical professionals, law enforcement, educators, and others who encounter victims of sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Prior to joining our team, she worked in the international affairs arena, where she lived, worked and traveled abroad, and conducted many training and educational programs for volunteers and members of the international nonprofit organization. She has been to five continents so far, she’s a traveler, like you are, Shannon, and but she still wants to see and experience much more of what our world has to offer. Miriam is a native Atlantean Okay, wait, pause because that’s rare, y’all. Miriam is a native Atlantian and moved to Gwinnett. County over 10 years ago, with her husband and three children. In her free time she enjoys getting outdoors and hiking in the north Georgia mountains with family and friends. Oh my gosh, I’m so excited to bring her on here. Hello, Mary.
Maryam Jordan 8:23
Here, thanks for having me.
Christine Gautreaux 8:24
Oh, we’re so delighted to have this conversation with you. Let’s start with how are you today?
Maryam Jordan 8:32
I’m doing well. I’m doing good. I didn’t take my lunchtime walk that I normally take. But in spite of that, I’m still doing doing fun. It’s been a busy day at work. So
Christine Gautreaux 8:42
I love that. So you usually take a lunchtime walk every day?
Maryam Jordan 8:46
I do I try? Yes, I do. I kind of eat quickly at my desk, which I know isn’t good. But then I go outside and walk for about 30 minutes. I try it you know, and it gets hot here in Atlanta. So sometimes if the heat is bad, I don’t do it. But I really do try to do that every day,
Christine Gautreaux 9:03
looking at you in that nugget of wisdom and action like in the first 30 seconds for our listeners. That is brilliant. So that’s one one you balance stress with a little bit about mosaic Georgia, and what you do and what a little bit of services they provide to the community because I want to set our listeners up to know why. It might be a little bit of a stressful place that you work out.
Maryam Jordan 9:29
Right just maybe, but right so mosaic Georgia is a sexual assault and Children’s Advocacy Center and our missing mission is to take action and guide change for the safety, health and justice for children and adults who’ve been impacted by sexual violence and abuse. So we have been actually in the Gwinnett County community since 1986. We started at the cornet rape crisis center, and then we just expanded to serve children and becoming a Children’s Advocacy Center and sexual assault Center. As well, the services that we offer are extensive. It’s like everything under one roof. So you know, when a victim does come to us, we refer to them as clients. They have advocacy services, so we’re giving them that emotional support that they need. Children also can receive forensic interviews, for those cases that do involve law enforcement, where you know, they need to get to the bottom of what exactly happened in this situation. We provide forensic medical care for both children and adults. And we also have counseling service and support groups that we offer here, legal services, we have a 24 hour crisis line where we’re responding to, you know, anyone who calls us that either we will help them address their need, or we’ll refer them out if they’ve experienced sexual assault or know someone who has. And back to what I do, as you said, before, we do prevention, education, and also professional education and training. So we trained nurses to become sexual assault nurse examiners, we also go into hospitals and medical schools, teaching the doctors and residents there how to have a trauma informed response to those victims of sexual assault. And we are also training law enforcement, as you said, in my bio, all, you know, segments of the community definitely schools, we go into our local schools and work with social workers and counselors as well. So we are we really tried to offer everything that we can in the in the area of sexual assault just to educate people, and tips really teaching them about having that trauma informed, informed response, and then also working with the victims themselves as they experienced that.
Christine Gautreaux 11:41
Thank you so much. Like, I hate that it’s a needed service. And I am grateful that it exists in our community. I have told you before, when I was in grad school, I did my year long internship with the children’s assessment center in Houston, and Advocacy Center, much like mosaic, Georgia, and those services are invaluable to people who have gone through trauma like that, and it’s a big deal. So, how do you how do you do it? How do you have occupational wellness,
Maryam Jordan 12:17
right? Well, we started off as I mentioned, my walk at lunch. In addition to that I do I like to journal for me, it helps just to, you know, write down my thoughts. You know, I don’t do it every day, I That’s my goal. But I may journal, you know, two or three times a week, I do wake up every morning. So with, you know, purpose, quiet time, just to try to, you know, set my intention for the day of how I want my day to go. So all of those things sort of helped me stay focused and grounded and to have incorporate that a little bit of self care everyday as much as I can.
Christine Gautreaux 12:58
I love that. Those are all really important things. When How long have you been working there, Merriam?
Maryam Jordan 13:07
into your in September? It’ll be two years. Oh,
Christine Gautreaux 13:11
thank you. Yeah, yeah, it is. Um, you know, you can even feel it, as you say the words like I feel it when I when I think about this, because of course, I think about the people who’ve been through this trauma in my own life. And it’s a heavy topic, like it is a heavy topic to think about and talk about. And we also know that it impacts what are the statistics now, about women and impacts.
Maryam Jordan 13:40
I mean, almost, I think about six out of 10 women have experienced the sexual assault and the numbers are just going up, they’re definitely not going down. Just in terms of the caseload that we’ve seen here in the last couple of months, it’s you know, we’re seeing like 40 to 70 cases a month, this spring. So we had a little bit of a slowdown during, you know, COVID pandemic, but now things have really picked up. I mean, things were not slow during the pandemic, but they’ve just even just worked. Things have opened up. Right.
Christine Gautreaux 14:14
Right. Right. Well, that I had that question is if things got worse during the pandemic, because, you know, I have a history as a social worker of working with children who had been abused, and it always, it always was worst during times of crisis. And so I can only imagine that, you know, when people are under stress, financial stress or emotional stress, or, you know, that’s when a lot of those things happen. And so, I’m glad that people are seeking out your services and coming in for help. Yeah, and
Maryam Jordan 14:46
we do think that there actually was an increase over COVID With boost because schools were closed. You know, those the reports that would kill us to come in through teachers or counselors, school nurses, were not coming in, obviously and even you know, people going to hospitals for routine things or even minor ER visits, they were opting to try to solve those issues at home or maybe an urgent care or something like that. So we saw a slowdown, but it was not for the reason that you think so. Right. Yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 15:15
Shannon, do you have some questions or comments?
Shannon M. 15:19
Yeah. So I know that it said the children, children’s resources were added accurate, the program was started, right. So if, if I’m not part of a family, and I see somebody who may or may not be being abused, what is the how did you say it? What is the correct trauma informed response to that? Right? Well,
Maryam Jordan 15:42
first of all, if you really do suspect that I would definitely, definitely encourage you to call us to call our crisis line and report it. You know, there are mandated reporters in the community, people like teachers and school counselors and things like that are, you know, nurses, people that work in hospitals, anyone that works with a child is a mandated reporter, and even us as community members should consider ourselves mandated reporters. So if we are suspecting that, then I would definitely urge you to call our crisis line. And I can, you know, I don’t know, Christina, I can put it in the chat for you to run that through on the bed,
Christine Gautreaux 16:19
and we will make sure we put it in our show notes for folks to
Maryam Jordan 16:24
Yes, okay, perfect. So I would say call the crisis line, um, you know, definitely, but even just in terms of interacting with that mother, or that family, if you’re thinking something is going on, you know, I think the starting place is to, first tell them what you think may be happening, and just, you know, make them feel like, it’s not so horrible, because I think a lot of reasons that sexual assault, and even sometimes Child Sexual Abuse doesn’t get reported, because there’s so much shame affiliated with it. And people are just a shame, there’s a lot of self blame that happens. And so we need to let the parent and the child know that this is not your fault. This is not right. And then it should definitely be reported to the police. And even with adults. In the case of us serving adults, it’s up to that person who’s over 18, if they want to report what happened to them or not, they have that choice. And so as an adult, they can involve law enforcement or not. But But even so, they should still seek help for you know, counseling help, or some kind of therapy for that, even if they don’t want to go through with any, you know, legal action against the person. But even for, you know, young adults or any age adult, we serve all age adults, but any adult 18 or over, can definitely still get our services through our forensic medical exam. So even if they do not want to report what happened to them, they can still come to us and get a forensic medical exam at no cost to them. And we will hold the evidence that we collect and in the event that they decide they would like to report later than then the evidence has been collected. And we can do that for them. We can also help them with any legal services that they may need, with temporary protective orders, if that’s a need, or even for counseling, if they need to be in a support group, or even one on one counseling, we can either do it in house or refer them out to another agency or counselor that would be able to help them.
Christine Gautreaux 18:27
Oh, Miriam, that is such a huge gift for our community. One of the things I learned very early on, I was a baby social worker. And when I got my master’s degree, I was naive enough to think that like every therapist could deal with sexual abuse. Yeah. And when I went through my training and realized that I mean, therapists are just humans, right, and they’re trained to do. But there is a special type of training for somebody that is dealing with somebody who hasn’t been through a sexual assault or long term sexual abuse. Because sometimes therapists have a hard time talking about sex, just like regular people have a hard time talking to sex. So it’s important that you get connected with a therapist that has the skills that can talk about it in and work with you on it, because not, not all therapists are equal when it comes to stuff.
Maryam Jordan 19:21
That’s true. That’s so true. And I know what we always teach and train on in terms of having a trauma informed response is really just letting the person feel like they’re in control. Because when sexual assault happens, obviously they someone took control from them. And so we always want to give them choices. When they enter our building. We always just, you know, want to ask them questions, open ended questions, never leading questions or judgmental questions. So we always just want to, you know, get let them know that they are in control. You’re safe now and you are in control from this point. forward, and you can, you know, we will support you with whatever you decided with adults in terms of reporting or not reporting. It’s not your fault. And so we always just want to, you know, make them be in control and feel like they are in control to try to give them that back to what was stolen from them back to them.
Shannon M. 20:22
Right. Right. And I hear what you’re saying, you know, even though it won’t be the same. Now, here where you are, you have options, and these are the options that we’re providing for you. You know, and I wanted to ask, because I didn’t do training like this, you know, I was an RA on campus and had residents and had to go through the the conversation and Oh, actually, it’s not just about, of course, I want you to feel comfortable. But I actually had to tell somebody now, because now we got to file a report or do all this stuff through the school, you know, so outside of conversations like that, when somebody might have a position where they know, they probably come into contact with it. I don’t think what to do is widely talked about, you know, so that’s why I wanted to ask for our listeners, even me, having, you know, known people stories in my life or having these positions, I still usually think about women, I usually don’t think about this whole group of children. What about them? You know, what do you do if you’re that person that sees a child, so thank you for the information.
Maryam Jordan 21:24
Of course, and I just wanted to add, you mentioned that you are an RA, I have a son who’s been an RA as well. And we actually do offer trainings for RAS on local, some of our local college campuses in Gwinnett. County, because it’s just such a need. We all know how prevalent it is on college campuses. So hopefully most of those RAS around the country now are getting that training, but they definitely are in Gwinnett. County. Good.
Christine Gautreaux 21:49
Well, and I also just want to shout out, we know it’s more prevalent abuse with women, but it does happen to men too. So for our listeners that may not know that, that yeah, sexual assault. It does not discriminate against class, or gender or race, it can happen to anybody anywhere. And that I know, when I was going through the training, as a master level social worker, I came home, I will never forget this, like, you know, as a newbie, you’re handed all the group cases. And I would read a case and I would go on to the next one. And I remember coming home and telling my husband, we are turning on our alarm, and our children are never allowed outside ever again. And like, What are you talking about I go, I can’t really tell you, I’ll deal with it with my therapist. Because the post traumatic stress like the the secondary trauma can happen to people in this field, if you are not paying attention. So that’s another thing, which I know you are really well versed in Marian but like this self and community care for our professionals, for our nurses, for our doctors, which we all know a lot of them are having are struggling right now after COVID and the grief and loss that they’re experiencing. But yeah, it is trauma. I was telling somebody the other day. I mean, our country has been through trauma for the last two years with this pandemic. And we talked on the show last week about we hit the 600,000 deaths have been reported in the United States alone. And so that collective grief, which is trauma, and then all of us have been doing our jobs, going through this at the same time. And it affects people different ways. So I would love for you to talk a little bit, Miriam about what is trauma? And how can you tell if somebody is having a trauma response? And we may not know what’s causing it. But how do you identify that?
Maryam Jordan 23:55
Yeah, I mean, trauma is really just happens, you know, when you have been usually violated in some way, or just your life has just been interrupted, you know, in a way that you don’t expect, as you just said, All of us have collectively gone through the trauma of this pandemic. That’s not even over yet. And so, you know, we really, I think we quickly as people, we develop quick coping mechanisms. And so it makes us think that we are actually you don’t have PSTD PSTD or that we’re not, you know, affected by these things, but but I think that the truth of the matter is that is actually not the case. I think that you know, people who are not when they encounter a victim and they don’t really have a trauma informed response, they are, you know, passing judgment. They are, you know, just making assumptions, especially in the in the case of sexual assault. The the victims blame themselves but sometimes, you know, family may blame you based on what you were wearing. or were you drinking alcohol, things like that. And so people take for granted, you know what true consent means. And, you know, consent has to be given in these these cases. And so I think, you know, a lot can just be taken away from a comfort from a person when consent is not given. And when so many judgments are passed about, you know, the victim and the people. And really drug facilitated and alcohol facilitated sexual assault is really the highest level of sexual assault that occurs, you know, especially in those over 18 Going up to teenagers and into adulthood. So it really is, you know, a tough situation. And we that’s why we find our training at Mosaic GA is so important to, you know, make sure that people know how to have that trauma informed response to the victims as they are working with them.
Christine Gautreaux 25:56
Right, and I just have to throw out there the first one is believe the victim? Yes, I believe them. Yes. And that’s, I was so shocked when I got into this field about how many people don’t believe, or how many people blame the victim, and it is heartbreaking. And that just compiles and piles on the trauma, because then you have different levels of relationship, like strains and relationships and things like that. So, yeah, it is a big deal. And, you know, we all know, we’ve all seen it like, especially with systemic abuse in different religious organizations and things like that, that there is a lot of judgment, or there’s a lot of hiding, and that it’s a secret, and that we’re not going to talk about it, and then it keeps going on or the abuser keeps happening, because it’s not talked about. So
Maryam Jordan 26:53
yeah. And I did want to just add, Christine, that, you know, we yeah, there is a campaign and actually the national campaign that’s called Start by believing, you know, in the arena of sexual assault, in Violence Against Women International, that’s sort of one of their tag lines and things that they promote. But you know, only like two out of 10 reports of sexual assault may be false reports. And so that is such a low number. I mean, it’s actually no I misquoted, it’s more like, you know, 98% are telling the truth and 2% are not, no, it’s just very rare that somebody would claim sexual assault if it in fact, didn’t happen. Because, as I said, before, there’s so much shame and such a stigma attached to it, that that’s not the choice that most people are going to go if they want to lie or manipulate something, they may choose something else it does happen. But again, it’s extremely rare.
Christine Gautreaux 27:49
Right. And what I found was when it did happen, it was usually because there was past trauma that had not been dealt with. And yeah, it was ill. Yeah, it’s, it’s a big deal. And so we do need to believe when somebody comes forward or shares with us, or Yeah, and I think also acknowledge the, what it takes for somebody to share, like, acknowledge how big of a deal that is. And yeah, and if we’re not capable of holding space, if you don’t know how to do it, or you don’t, to be calm about it and get them resources like mosaic, Georgia, or if you’re listening to us in a different country, or a different town, look and see what resources are available in your area. And and if they’re not, they may need to be started, because that’s how mosaic Georgia started, right? was the founder looked around and there wasn’t a resource and she’s like, that’s not acceptable. And she started one.
Maryam Jordan 28:49
That’s right. That’s right. She was just against Miley was in 1986. Do you know volunteering in a hospital and a victim comes in and, you know, the nurses in the ER don’t really know how to engage with her what to do. And so she saw that, that gap and that need and so she started the rape crisis center in the Gwinnett rape crisis center in 1986. And then it just grew from there. We obviously have renamed ourselves to mosaic Georgia, but and we serve now adults and children. So yeah, yeah. Yes, and I did just want to correct myself, Christine, because I did also quote, misquote another statistic earlier, so nine out of 10, sexual assault victims, rape victims are female, some 90%, who those who are raped are female, and then 10% are male. Yeah,
Christine Gautreaux 29:42
thank you for giving us those statistics. I mean, it’s hard to hear the statistics. And it’s important to acknowledge in answers we can’t heal if we don’t talk about the truth.
Shannon M. 29:55
Right. Right. Yeah. And I think when I think about People not believing it right? Especially with psychology. So I have a psychology degree Marian. And it really interests me why people think the way they do about certain things when it might not make sense to me right, or why they react a certain way. But when I was growing up, blonde or SVU was one of my favorite shows where I feel like I grew up with Olivia. And but he you know, but in our haircuts, right. But as a psychology major now I’m thinking, well, it might not necessarily, I will, I will say, it’s definitely not necessarily healthy, to have entertainment, that shows things like this, right? And then people get desensitized, just like we talked about with the news. And now, when stuff happens in real life, we’re more likely to minimize it, and less likely to believe it, because we feel like we see it all the time. And you know how this story wraps up in 30 minutes, but that’s not the reality of the situation, when you’re talking about, you know, a young child in court systems and all the different things that go on in any situation that we could be talking about, no matter the person’s age, I think that that doesn’t help.
Maryam Jordan 31:11
You’re right, you’re right. And there’s actually is something called the CSI effect to where people think, when they see TV, you know, is how it is in real life. And it’s oftentimes very different, you know, cases, unfortunately, do not go to trial that fast. And they’re, you know, results don’t come back from the crime lab that fast. So, you know, there’s this process that happens that in reality that’s quite different than what you see on TV, even though all those things are done. But it’s usually at a much, you know, at a slower pace. And then, you know, obviously not as glamorous and, you know, just catch the bad guy, like you say, wrap it up in 30 minutes tied up in a bow and it’s over. So that’s very hazy. Obviously, people who are victims are affected for years, years and years to come. It takes a lot of work for them to heal from their drop their trauma.
Christine Gautreaux 32:03
Mary, I’m when I think about this, I’m, you know, I’m a doer, and I like to like have the action items. And we have a hashtag called wisdom in action. And when you think about, like, what can regular folks do? Like, I one of the things that’s bubbling up for me, and I’m going to misquote it, but um, there were a couple of years ago, we were advocating at the capitol for, because there was such a huge backlog of rape kits that had not been processed. So there was a time that we were called to action to get some legislation. Is there anything like that going on that we need to know about? Or? Or is there a place that listeners can donate to the mosaic Georgia, like, tell us some action items,
Maryam Jordan 32:49
that action items, definitely you can send us donate the donations, we are a nonprofit 501 C three organization. So you can go to our website, mosaic georgia.org and donate any time, of course. And just recently, a bill was passed, and the tracking has system has gotten much better. And there is going to actually be a tracking system for sexual assault kits going forward, at least in the state of Georgia. That is where that will definitely make the backlog hopefully, go away totally. And we’ve actually made some improvements with that, you know, in the last few years, it was that bad several years ago, it’s gotten better. But now there’s actually going to be an electronic tracking system so that at all times we can know exactly where are those kids are, what’s the set is have they been processed by the GBI, crime Crime Lab yet or not. So we’re very excited with that and see JCC, who we’re working with, has has been very instrumental with working on that.
Christine Gautreaux 33:52
That is fantastic. And that’s good news and hope like sometimes with these big issues, like you feel like ah, things aren’t getting better or things. So thank you for that update and giving us a little hope around this. Now. Yeah, I want to I want to take us on a little bit of a left turn here because I want to go back to your bio. And I want to talk about you being a hiker when we talk about occupational wellness and balance of life, work balance. Tell us tell us about that piece of your life and how that helps bring you into balance.
Maryam Jordan 34:27
Yeah, well that’s just one of my favorite pastimes is hiking or walking in the woods. Often we’ll go with my daughter or sometimes my whole family, sometimes a friend but we just really enjoy you know, finding a new nature trail lots of times, you know, again in the north Georgia mountains or somewhere new and I just love to walk along water and see the animals I mean, you know, seeing Heron fly by and just you know, really beautiful birds and hear the water rushing in the streets. Even things like that. So that’s just, I don’t know, my, my sort of quick local go to that I can do this not expensive, I can just go drive my car and go to a local park where those trails are there. And it just really helps to center me and kind of calm me down and recharge for the, for the next week to come. So I try to do that. On as many weekends as I can, I don’t always, I’m not always able to do that, obviously, if it’s a very busy weekend, I’ve got errands or, you know, sports games or whatever it may be something with the kids then, you know, even something as simple as on a Saturday morning, taking my coffee to the back porch, and just looking at the squirrels and the chipmunks and the birds and you know, in my backyard, and you know, the wind blowing through the trees that for me, that just is I don’t know, it’s very therapeutic for me. And like I said, journaling, sometimes I’ll take my journal out there, right, you know, write down my thoughts for the day or the week, so So all of those things are really good. There’s something I recently discovered, also that’s called, I discovered it, it’s not like it’s a new thing, but it’s called rebounding. So those little mini trampolines that you jump on, those are so much fun. And I don’t know, it’s just like, it’s like when you were a kid jumping on your parents bed, and they would always, you know, get on you or whatever. But I just I love jumping on the bed when I was little. And I’m like I found an adult way to jump on the bed, I got a rebounder, hi. That you can jump on them. You know, if you connect, they’re like workout routines you can do, you can just jump on them or walk on them, you can jog, you can sprint on them. So they’re very versatile. They’re not super expensive. But I will put a disclaimer that they’re not all created equal. And you should invest a little bit of money in them, because there’s really cheap ones, you actually can injure yourself. So I would advise, you know, doing your research and getting a pretty decent quality rebounder, but I love it. I think it’s popular in the UK and some other places. But it’s a good quick cut, like you know, just kind of get your blood rushing. And if you especially if you need to get some energy for something and you don’t want to do the coffee, then that comes in handy too.
Christine Gautreaux 37:13
We I love that you shout it out the UK because I was looking at our stats today. And we have listeners in the UK. So give us some comments and let us know if they use a rebounder. That would be really fun. And that would be really cool. Well, I mentioned earlier that we do a wisdom in action. Shannon, will you explain a little bit more about that? And?
Shannon M. 37:37
Yes, so wisdom in action is about one thing. We don’t want to overwhelm ourselves or anybody else. Right. So what is one thing that you’re going to do this week to be more intentional about your occupational wellness? And we go through and say what are these are and mine is? Actually what is mine? I will say that mine is actually I’m going to flip it and instead of making it about my planner and all the things I need to do, which are still on the list, I will make it about going outside and continuing to be grounded so that when I come to get this stuff ready, I’ll be able to be focused and centered. That’s great. Yes. What about a Marian, what do you think?
Maryam Jordan 38:23
Okay, I’m sorry, I thought maybe Christine was. So for me. So I’m sort of on a health journey, changing my diet and just eating healthier. Just started a cleanse a couple of days ago. So just staying on my plan to do my cleanse so that I can be healthier and be better and have more energy naturally. That’s great.
Shannon M. 38:47
It is easy for you to eat clean at work.
Maryam Jordan 38:52
Yes, but it takes a lot of preparation. So obviously I bring everything from home. And so that’s that’s what I’m eating at work. So yes, if I snacked on what was available to me in the office, I would be in trouble. And so I’ve gotten me in trouble in the past. So I’m really trying to stay true to this cleanse and stay on plan with what I bring from home. So
Christine Gautreaux 39:13
I’m pulling in Hill who Cecile Armstrong was one of our guests a couple of weeks ago and she’s listening. And she says yes, go outside. So I think her wisdom and action. It is the soul’s wisdom.
Shannon M. 39:26
Thanks for affecting me.
Christine Gautreaux 39:31
Yeah, because when she was on we were talking about putting our feet in the grass and we took pictures of our toes. I don’t think we ever shared those listeners but we’ve been into going outside and putting our feet in the grass so it was really cool. My wisdom in action this week in regards to occupational wellness is literally on my calendar, y’all. I am scheduling my lunch break and a little thing that says red Because I realized because I work from home, and I make my own schedule, you would think that Oh, you’d schedule a lunch break, but it’s not like an office. And sometimes I look up and it’s three o’clock, and I haven’t eaten. And I’m wondering why I’m getting a little hangry, or a little cranky. So my wisdom and action is scheduling my lunch break, and taking some rest time. So for me rest time is all go out on my front porch, and disconnect from electronics for 15 minutes while I’m on a break. Because it’s so easy working from home to just always be connected. And for me, it is at least, maybe I’m just waiting doing laundry. But that’s their show. So thank you so much for being with us today. Miriam, thank you for your wisdom, and the work you do in this world. It is so needed and valued. And I am grateful that you are a neighbor and in our community and that we got to meet and know more about you.
Maryam Jordan 41:11
Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me. It’s been wonderful. Thank you.
Christine Gautreaux 41:15
Thank you more soon, I’m sure. Oh, my gosh, what a big conversation.
Shannon M. 41:26
So big. And I think my favorite thing is knowing that I have more than 911 nickel. I know, hopefully I won’t need it. But I’m glad I’m thankful for the resource because we need resources like this. I hate hearing stories about people going from trauma and trauma because other people don’t know how to handle a situation. So being prepared and plugged in. I love it.
Christine Gautreaux 41:53
Well, I when we talk about community resources, you know, there is a lot of discussion right now in in different parts of the United States about the defund the police movement, and the and a lot of what that’s about is not, it’s about taking some of that money and up and increasing our community resources. Right. And I know our local police department works very hand in hand with mosaic Georgia and they work together. But like you said about, it’s an option to not call the police, it’s an option to get help in another manner. Which, especially for folks who have had trauma in that regard for our black and brown brothers and sisters that sometimes have that live in, in their bodies, it’s a good thing to it’s a good thing to have a community resource that Yeah, yeah.
Shannon M. 42:47
And yeah, and I want to make sure to be specific. I’m not saying that the police don’t need to be called, you know, I understand are still the list of things to go through. But yeah, specifically so
Christine Gautreaux 43:00
because that’s, you know, the happiness to or mosaic Georgia and it’s it is a really nice facility and you can have basically somebody holds your hand through it, you know, that that you have the counselors and you have the intake folks and you have people and when I was in there, they had all the protections for the COVID-19 You know, they’re they’re taking care of our community. And you know, that’s a big thing for me is is a community care and they are an organization that values that so I’m grateful Well, my friend when when also Miriam, hello how delightful was she and nature she’s one of us like let’s go on.
Shannon M. 43:46
to still get your get your shoes ready. We’re going on a hike.
Christine Gautreaux 43:52
Absolutely. So talking about self care, my friend. Tell me tell me about what’s going on over at Shiloh glow and what’s what’s happening over there regarding self care and community care.
Shannon M. 44:08
Christine, I don’t even think that you were ready for this. Okay. And you know, you know information that other people don’t know you already know about the strawberry mango samples and the new cards and everything that we have coming out. So Shayla will if you you ladies do not know again is a handmade shea butter business. Right now we have shea butter, dark brown sugar scrub and a multi use oil. But outside of the individual products what I don’t think you’re ready for Christine is this subscription that is actually lived right now. Today’s day.
Christine Gautreaux 44:48
Tell me more and where do people find it?
Shannon M. 44:50
Yes, so shallow glow.com As always, but everybody loves shallow glow anyways, right? Everybody who buys it constantly buys it. Oh and over again. So I want you to be able to take care of your physical wellness Christine and your financial wellness and lock in that price that works for you. And then you don’t have to keep ordering it. You don’t have to tell me hey, I need a four ounce mango madness, because it’s gonna come to your door every month already.
Christine Gautreaux 45:16
Okay, is it my fault that this subscription got created cuz I keep texting you or?
Shannon M. 45:24
No no, I love it. And I mean, it’s motivation. I know I need it. I’m gonna use it whether or not the company is here or not. Right. But you using it consistently people in New Jersey, people in Maryland people across the country, I want to make sure that we get that. So that is what I’m thinking about for self care. I love shea butter because of all the natural things that it does for you. So yeah, we’re gonna have more of it. But I will get all that together to bring it to the ladies.
Christine Gautreaux 45:58
I love it. Well, we’ll put a link to that in our show notes. And in regards to community care, one of the things I love that your company does is the Shea rose. So will you give a shout out about the Shea rose so folks know what we’re talking about?
Shannon M. 46:14
Absolutely. So exactly what we’re talking about right let’s say for example, I think Maryam be somebody that if you know Marian, she will be a good candidate. She’s out in the community, being very intentional about where she works, what she does with her time making the difference in the lives of other women. But like she didn’t get her walk today, maybe she hasn’t been taking, you know the the space and time that she needs for herself. And that’s what the show is about giving a free gift of shallow glow. We will take care of it on your behalf. And you get to nominate somebody in your life in your community that has made a difference and a change in your life. So if you have a few people in mind, email them to Shayla glow@gmail.com with the subject, my shea row so that I know why
Christine Gautreaux 47:04
do are you announcing June’s next show? Because next week is the last day of the month. Yes, it is out the Shea row for June next show. Oh my gosh,
Shannon M. 47:16
I love and if you ladies have a recommendation or excuse me a nomination that is due by the end of the week so that we can get the choice shave row for the month and make sure that she gets honored in time.
Christine Gautreaux 47:29
Oh my gosh, I love it. I love it so much. Yes. Well, my friends. It’s always the bittersweet moment where we have to wrap it up. Love our weekly conversations and our listeners and I am grateful. So I hope folks if you want to continue the conversation, you can join us over at women connected in wisdom calm, you can find us on our social media. We’d love it if you would hashtag your wisdom and action and tag us because we want to see what awesomeness is happening out there in all the eight dimensions of wellness but
Shannon M. 48:10
yeah, and don’t forget, be well be wise and we will see you next month.
Christine Gautreaux 48:19
Bar to us.
Unknown Speaker 48:24
Thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on-air live on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
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