BAY-PEACE: BETTER ALTERNATIVES FOR YOUTH
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EMOTIONAL/MENTAL WELLNESS

2/20/2024

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In today’s fast-paced world, where stress and anxiety seem to be constant companions, prioritizing our mental and emotional well-being has become more crucial than ever. As we delve into the dimensions of wellness, we uncover a holistic approach that encompasses not just physical health, but also mental, emotional, social and even cultural aspects. Originally conceptualized by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with eight dimensions, this framework has evolved over time, with additions such as culture and creativity, reflecting a more comprehensive understanding of what constitutes wellness. 

Before diving into the various tools and practices that promote emotional and mental wellness, it's important to understand the landscape of therapy and mental health demographics. Over the years, there has been a positive shift in societal attitudes towards seeking help for mental health issues. People from diverse backgrounds are increasingly recognizing the importance of therapy and counseling in maintaining overall well-being. However, there are still disparities in access to mental health services, with factors such as socioeconomic status, cultural beliefs, and stigma playing significant roles. That’s why we want to highlight what folks can do in our space/life right now + include in your day to day life routines. 

Now, let's explore some effective tools and practices that can nurture emotional and mental well-being: 
  1. Mindfulness Meditation: This practice involves bringing one’s attention to the present moment without judgment. Whether through guided meditation. Whether through guided meditation sessions, mindful apps or simply taking a few minutes to focus on your breath, mindfulness can help reduce stress, improve concentration and enhance overall emotional resilience. 
  2. Yoga and Tai Chi: Both yoga and tai chi combine gentle physical movements with breath awareness, promoting relaxation and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. These ancient practices not only benefit physical health but also cultivate a sense of inner peace and balance. 
  3. Cognitive Behavioral Techniques: Thinking about your thinking, also known as cognitive restructuring, is a cornerstone of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). By identifying and challenging negative thought patterns, individuals can reframe their perspectives and develop healthier coping mechanisms for dealing with stressors. 
  4. Hormone Hacking: Understanding the connection between hormones and mood can be empowering for emotional wellness. Simple lifestyle changes such as prioritizing sleep, regular exercise and a balanced diet can positively impact hormone levels, thereby improving mood and overall well-being. 
  5. Creative Expression: Engaging in activities such as art, music, writing or dance can be incredibly therapeutic. Expression emotions through creative outlets allows for catharsis and self-discovery, fostering emotional resilience and a deeper connection to oneself. 
  6. Social Support: Meeting with a friend or loved one, whether for a heart to heart conversation or a fun outing, provides valuable support. Building and maintaining meaningful relationships are essential for emotional well-being, offering a sense of belonging and connection and us at BAY-Peace that is one of our MAIN values. ​

WRITTEN BY: JULIANNA HORCASITAS 
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The Attitude of Gratitude

12/17/2023

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At a time when many are celebrating Christmas, buying presents and anticipating gifts, it's also important for us to reflect on all of the things that we have to be grateful for. While for some, this time of year tends to bring families together, it is also a time that perpetuates consumerism and materialism, exacerbating feelings of needing more or simply not having enough. For the sake of our collective health, we just want to encourage everyone to uphold an attitude of gratitude, especially during these tough times!
Professor Robert Clemmons, a Psychology professor from UC Davis has done extensive research defines Gratitude as “A deep appreciation for what you have received.” The Oxford definition for gratitude is “ the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” In this regard, gratitude is not just something you experience internally, but that you also express or put into action externally. 
According to Emmons, multiple things happen in your body when regularly practicing gratitude:
  • Rewiring your brain, Teaching yourself to scan the world for the positive instead of the negative 
  • Triggers a positive chain reaction from the release of dopamine
  • Initiate the parasympathetic nervous system — the part of your nervous system that helps you rest and digest. 
  • Lowers blood pressure, heart rate and breathing to help with overall relaxation.

Dopamine has astounding affects on our physical and mental health such as:
  • Learning
  • Motivation
  • Heart rate
  • Blood vessel function
  • Kidney function
  • Lactation
  • Sleep
  • Mood
  • Attention
  • Control of nausea and vomiting
  • Pain processing
  • Movement
Practicing gratitude regularly can improve functioning for all of the above listed aspects of our health and wellness. 

Here are some easy ways you can begin to practice gratitude:
  1. Before you go to sleep, or immediately when waking up, take note (mentally or on paper) of all the different things that you are grateful for in your life.
  2. Keep a gratitude journal. Make it a point to regularly write reflections about the things and opportunities in your life that you are grateful for. 
  3. Always express thanks and appreciation for others when they do things for you.
  4. Prioritize spending time immersed and focusing on the things that you are grateful for. (Being attentive to loved ones, witnessing the beauty of your environment).

Written by: Leilani Salvador
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Facilitation 101: Do’s & Don’t of Cultivating a Safe Space for Healing & Transformation

11/17/2023

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Facilitation, often regarded as orchestrating meaningful interactions and transformative experiences. Facilitators start without even knowing it, from childhood activities to assuming leadership roles. The seeds of facilitation transcends settings, creating moments where collaboration, healing, transformative, and collective progress thrive. 
At its core, facilitation lays the foundation for connections, fosters inclusivity, and nurtures environments where diverse perspectives meld into a tapestry of shared insights. 
For me, navigating through facilitation was a journey with initial discomfort. Yet, with each step forward, I understood its significance. Facilitation isn’t merely about leading discussions: it's about crafting spaces where ideas converge and transformative growth takes root. Alongside my co-facilitaors Leilani and Cin, the importance of this skill became evident as we spoke about various settings, witnessing firsthand the impact it wields. 

Do’s and Don’t of Facilitation: 
  • Community Agreements: Establishing agreements for everyone to abide by allows for trust and safety within a group, forming the necessary foundation for meaningful and transformative interactions. 
  • Community Building: Forging community centered connections lays the groundwork for engaging discussions. Check out our Community Building ARTSenal - a handbook filled with games, activities and energizers written by the youth of BAY-Peace
  • Delegation Mastery - Empowering participants to contribute as leaders leverages the collective strength of the group. 
  • Bring Your Essence: Infusing authenticity fosters a sense of relatability and trust within the space. 
  • Thorough Planning: Preparation ensures a seamless and impactful facilitation process, and mitigates stress for you as a facilitator. 
  • Active Listening: Engaging attentively and mirroring or paraphrasing people’s talking points ensures clarity and understanding for the whole group. 
  • Multisensory Space: music, visual aids, scents, etc. ensures that people with different learning styles have meaningful opportunities to be engaged with the material.
  • Participation Consensus: Encouraging active involvement instills a sense of ownership and strengthened commitment within the space. 
  • Creating Spaciousness: Allowing more time for reflection will foster deeper insights and connections between the material and its application to everyday life.
  • Ending Positively: Concluding with uplifting and inspiring energy to anchor the session with a sense of purpose and transformation. 
  • Time Considerations: Respecting time frames demonstrates professionalism and regard for participants’ commitments. 
  • Team Collaboration: Embracing teamwork between facilitators amplifies creativity and enriches and ensures that participants have the support needed to succeed in goals and outcomes. 
Facilitation is a transformative force, nurturing spaces where voices resonate, minds expand, and hearts connect. It’s a skill that not only guides conversations but also cultivates environments where growth and transformation become tangible. Within these spaces lie the seeds of empowerment and change, waiting to be nurtured and cultivated.

Julianna horcasitas

The Communications/Development Associate since 2021, a passionate advocate for BAY-Peace including Healing, Wellness and room for Transformation. Excels in visual storytelling an analytic writing, adding depth and beauty to our transformative work.

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Advocating for a more wellness-centered work culture

10/19/2023

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​For the past 5 years, I’ve been on a journey to cultivate more wellness in all that I do. What started as a personal journey, turned into an overflow of my current mission to advocate and organize for more of a wellness-centered  work culture not only for myself, but for my people. Especially for my team,  comrades, accomplices and allies who are committed to building more safe, just, equitable and liberated spaces for our community at large. 

In our capitalist society, working to financially support ourselves is a nearly inescapable reality for the majority of us. For those who come from working class families, not only did we watch loved ones work multiple jobs in order to survive and provide for our families but we’ve also been conditioned to associate our value with our productivity or accomplishments.

But I’m here to tell you that despite what our families, education and society has conditioned us to believe or forced us into doing, you are inherently valuable, not for what you do, but for who you are! 

Since many of us have no choice but to work to sustain our living and our family, I’m sharing both individual and collective best practices that create fertile ground for increasing and sustaining well-being in the midst of it all. These have helped me sustain my own well-being and leadership responsibilities as a mother, a Director, entrepreneur, organizer, educator, facilitator. 

As a Director and youth mentor, I also have an inherent responsibility to take good care of my team because how can I expect them to do their best work in tending to others, if they themselves aren’t allowed the resources and support to tend to themselves? These collective practices help increase retention, build a stronger sense of community and prevent/mitigate collective burnout so that we can do our best work as an organization.
 

Personal practices:
Establish a self care routine. Whether you do something in the morning, in the evening or any other time. Find something that you can do for yourself regularly and consistently, that will help you feel grounded and well-taken care. 
Hydrate and nourish your body. Dehydration and malnourishment exacerbates heightened stress and fatigue. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water and eating nutritious food!
Spend undisturbed quality time with loved ones. We are hardwired for human connection and can not thrive in isolation. Make sure you devote time to connect and spend quality time with the people who nourish your whole being. 
Realistic todo list. It’s easy to get caught up in overwhelm from what seems like an infinitely, never ending to-do list! Sometimes less is more, so prioritize 3-5 most urgent tasks on any given day to ensure productivity but not overwhelm yourself. 
Gratitude practice. Your attitude determines your latitude. Life gets hard and the struggle is always real! Devoting time and space to regularly practice gratitude for the blessings, no matter how big or small, helps us keep a level head in the midst of our trials and tribulations. 
Never hesitate to advocate for your well-being. Whether it’s needing a day off, needing more time for a task, or needing a pay raise, advocating for ourselves is the best way to make room for inviting into our lives, the circumstances that are optimal for our growth and well-being.
Say no to back to back meetings. Depending on your field, meetings might be a significant part of your workload and meeting fatigue is a real thing! Give yourself space and time to breathe and reset in between meetings so that you can recharge your social battery.
Pursue passions or an enjoyable supplemental income. The monotony of “eat, sleep, work, repeat” can make life feel dull but sometimes we need more passion and income to make life enjoyable. Make it a priority to do something you're passionate about, and even better, build supplemental income for yourself doing something you enjoy!
Take breaks and use our PTO! You have a right and are legally entitled to take breaks from work, whether it's during your shift or throughout your time as an employee. The “all-gas, no-brakes” mentality is a dangerous one to have. We are not infinitely operating machines, our energy is finite. Take the time you need to rest and recharge so you can be at optimum performance in whatever you choose to pour energy into.

Organizational Practices:
Provide Wellness stipends. As an advocate for the humanization and well-being of our community, I believe that our team members are our greatest assets and should therefore be our biggest investment. When possible, our budgets should provide monthly supplemental income to support the well-being of our staff. 
Regular 1x1s. Many say it's not what you know but who you know. Relationships are what makes up the fabric of our community. Leaders should be making regular time to check in with each individual staff to check in on a personal note and support their professional development with devoted 1x1 time for meaningful connection and mentorship.
Regular Team meetings. Organizations operate more effectively when the team has a strong sense of unity & solidarity. Whether it's weekly or every other week, make sure your team has time to all get on the same page about collaborative projects, programs and initiatives of your organization.
32 hour work weeks. Since I first joined BAY-Peace in 2015, we have always had 32 hour workweeks. Many folks who work in the field of social justice are not driven by their desire to serve the community and make a real difference, so the energy we pour into our work is not only physical, but often emotional and sometimes even spiritual. Shorter work-weeks helps make sure that our time has ample time to rest and recharge so that they can do their best work in showing up for the communities we serve. 
Make it work for your people. The idea that “people work for us” is rooted in dehumanizing capitalist frameworks that look at humans as disposable and easily replaceable. It is my firm  belief that organizations rooted in social justice movements should also make an effort to work for their people, more specifically, their team members. Leaders like supervisors and executive staff should make every effort to be understanding and accommodate for the personal needs of our team members to support retention and long-term growth of your org.
Have regular shut downs. Liberation movements have existed for as long as oppressive circumstances. The transformative work of advocacy, community organizing and social justice activism will be here for the long-haul. Give your organization opportunities for a collective reset during pivotal moments like Winter, Spring or Summer break so that we can all come back ready and energized to do our best work.
Collaborative decision making. Unilateral decision making reinforces hierarchical and dictatorship leadership styles, which in-turn, reinforce imbalanced power dynamics. Providing opportunities for collaborative decision-making gives team members a greater sense of ownership and long-term commitment to the work that they are responsible for. 

Check out our Info sheet on BAY-Peace's 10 dimensions of wellness. In consideration of our well-being, these dimensions provide us with a holistic understanding of the different elements that influence our wellness.
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By: Leilani Salvador

Leilani has been with BAY-Peace since December 2015. She rose into leadership and became Director in 2017. In addition to BAY-Peace, she runs consulting company, Wage Art, supporting and managing projects, programs or events geared towards promoting wellness and cultural arts.

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    About Authors

    Leilani has been the Director of BAY-Peace since 2017. She is a certified Healing-engagement and Somatics practitioner and has been working in arts education, youth-development and community organizing since 2011.

    Julianna, our Communications/Development Associate since 2021, is a passionate advocate for BAY-Peace. She excels in visual storytelling an analytic writing, adding depth and beauty to our transformative work.

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BAY-Peace is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund. All donations made to BAY-Peace are tax deductible.
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