We want to extend a big thank you to everyone who joined us for our very first mycommunity event! It was wonderful to see all of you and hear your voices. A special thanks to Jamaal and Yadilsa Martin for joining us and sharing valuable insights from their personal journey. If you weren’t able to attend or want to revisit the event, no worries—here’s a recap. We missed you!

 

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For those who prefer reading, we’ve got you covered with the transcript!

 

Givette Ganzalez, Emcee:

 

Good afternoon, everyone.

 

I’m excited to see so many of you joining us. Welcome to our first ever My Community Initiative event. My name is Javette Gonzalez. I’m honored to be hosting you guys today. As the Director of Intake at White Glove, I have the privilege of seeing firsthand the incredible impact that community support and shared experiences have on the families that we serve.

 

So today’s event is all about connection, bringing together a patient community, our families and caregivers to share stories and to support one another. We have a great lineup, including a heartfelt discussion with some of the amazing parents in our community, followed by a guided meditation and breathing session to help us all unwind and find a moment of peace.

 

And as a token of our appreciation, we’re going to be providing an Uber Eats gift e gift card at the end of the session. So you guys can grab a treat of your choice as the refreshment for the meeting. I think we’re going to go ahead and get started actually with our panel. Our CEO, Nadia Naranjan, she’s going to join us.

 

She’s running a bit behind. But once she joins, then she’ll be able to speak her, her piece. So I think we can go ahead and get started and have our panel discussion. We’re going to be having the parent or we do have the parents of one of our patients Aiden Martin stepping up. To share their experiences, they inspire us every day since we began working with them over three years ago to plan for his discharge.

 

Currently, he’s receiving both nursing and BOE school nursing from White Glove. So here are Jamal and Yadilsa Martin, who we call Yari. Now we’re going to be discussing just a few things about their experience in, in this you know, private duty nursing world. Are you guys able to unmute yourselves?

 

Jamaal & Yadilsa Martin:

Yes, we are. Hi. Hi.

 

Givette Ganzalez, Emcee: Welcome. So I guess let’s start off with you just telling us a little bit about yourself, yourselves and your journey with Ayden.

 

Jamaal Martin

 

Thank you so much for having us. It’s been quite the journey for all of us, as I’m sure you know, all the parents that are in attendance. It’s a long journey, you know, taking care of our Children and making sure that they have the best possible for them to thrive. So our journey actually started before Aydin was born.

 

We found out that it was going to be a challenging journey. pregnancy. And so from very early on, we were having conversations with, you know, surgeons and cardiologists and E. N. T. And pulmonologist and all of these different people just to make sure that we all had everyone lined up for Aydin’s birthy.

 

Aydin was in the hospital for well, first he was born at 35 weeks. And so we were in the NICU for five and a half months, more or less. And that was challenging in and of itself. I’ll let you take, take it from there. Yeah, that was very challenging. After, after graduate, they call it graduates, you know, after graduating from the NICU after 169 days, I didn’t actually got transferred to Children’s Specialized Hospital, the rehab facility, on her birthday.

 

So the best birthday present you can have. And then Children’s Specialized, we were there for six months, and they showed us how to take care of our child. How to take care of him. Yeah, we had to learn how to take care of him. And we’re very grateful that they did because everything they showed us to do, we had to use within the first two weeks to actually save them.

 

So, yeah. Sounds like we’re in quite a journey, just even just beginning. Tell us a little bit about what helped you cope through those times. What helped us cope through it? Well, with him we, for one, like when they would talk about him we always made sure to leave the room because we said, you know, words have power speaking over him.

 

We don’t want the words to fall on him. He doesn’t know he’s not supposed to be here like this. He doesn’t know that he’s not home. This is his home. He doesn’t know these things. We’re not going to speak about how challenging he was, how good he’s doing. We only speak good. We’re not gonna say how bad he’s doing.

 

We’re not going to say you know, to this day today, he doesn’t know these things. So, for one, it was that. It was like, well, I have to tell you some things. Let’s talk in a hallway. Do not speak over him. Do not talk around him. He’s brilliant. He comes from us. His brain is working. His ears, he has his senses.

 

We’re not gonna do that. Like, just don’t speak over him. And then, like, we have this saying, we say, where there’s life, there’s hope. So, in our mind we were naive enough. Well, speaking for myself, I was naive enough to believe that my child was here. He was going to get better. Yeah, we had, we had some, we had some challenges before he came.

 

So once we heard a heartbeat, it was like we have a job regardless of what happens after that. We have a child. We just gotta, it may be some hiccups and maybe some challenges, but we have a child. We’re gonna fight, we’re gonna do everything we need to do so he can have the best quality of life he can have.

 

And we gonna be here with him. So, like, coping with it, it’s like, whatever we were going through emotionally, and, like, you know, the physical toll it was taking on her, like, pumping and everything, it was nothing compared to what he had gone through and what he was going to go through. So, I looked at it like, I can’t feel, I can’t feel sad that he’s in this position because he has to go through it.

 

He’s gonna feed off our energy, you know. I’ve been talking to him since he was in the, since he was in the womb. She’s been talking, singing and everything. He knows our voice. So he knows how happy we sound. So, I can’t go around him voice cracking, sounding like I’m crying, sounding sad, because he’ll pick up on that, you know.

 

Children are very inquisitive, they’re very, they feel things like that. So for me, it was like, I couldn’t be sad seeing him because, like, if I’m sad that he’s, I’m not sad that he’s here. I don’t like the situation, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So for me, it was just like, Not saying don’t show any weakness, but it’s like, you know, my child don’t need to see that.

 

You know, I can, I can have my moments, but I can’t have them around him. When he’s here, we’re just going to smile. We’re going to change his diaper. We’re going to rub his head. He’s going to squeeze on our fingers. And like, that’s what we’re going to do. I can’t show that to him. So for me, coping and then like, you know, giving birth, you know, being hormonal and a different range of emotions.

 

It’s like, you know, I got to be strong for him. I got to be strong for her. We lean on each other. You know, she’s leaning on me like, how are you doing this? It’s like, You know what? He’s here. He’s here. I’m happy that he’s here. How are you feeling today? Mom, dad, how are you guys feeling? He’s here and he’s breathing.

 

He’s gonna get better. Like, that’s, you know, looking at the good side of it. You know, cause it’s like, he fought like hell for lack of better words to get here. And it’s like, as long as he’s fighting, we gonna keep up the fight with him. So that’s how we coped. I was just looking at him like, he’s fighting, so we gotta fight with him.

 

And we had each other, right? Like, at the end of the day, we are here together. And so we’re going to power through whatever comes. So I think one of the, you know, one of the best things for us was to lean on each other. That’s how we coped. We, we talked to each other, we communicated. We, you know, we have hope.

 

Givette Gonzalez Emcee: I think that’s a very powerful message that where there’s light, there’s hope. I really like that. Thank you for sharing that and having a support system is everything, to be honest, like having each other, I can imagine has been so impactful in how you’re able to move forward. I know that there are a lot of challenges just in, in the healthcare world and navigating it. So how do you guys advocate effectively for, for your child to get everything that he needs?

 

Yadi (Yadilsa) Martin: Well, that’s the thing, right? Like, we, from, from early on, we knew what we’re going to be fighting. You know for one, we You know, we’re, we’re, we’re minorities in America. Right. So that in and of itself was already going to present a challenge.

 

But we always have each other and we always from the very beginning, like, you know, like we said, we had our team of professionals. And so, You know, from pulmonology to E. N. T. To cardiology to OBGYN to gastroenterology. And so from very early on, we have said we are going to go through this together, but we all need to have an open line of communication.

Everyone has to be on the same page in order for anyone to do anything in their field. So even now, you know, three and a half years later, When we’re having conversations, it’s not just, we’re having a conversation with ENT or we’re having a conversation with pulmonology. No, we all have conversations together.

 

It’s a team. When we go to appointments, we have appointments with a team. So, you know, at any given time, there’s 10, 15 people in one room because we all want Aydin’s care to be the best that it can possibly be. And so that we can all navigate whatever challenges come up together. So we all know, okay, if he gets sick and it’s a pulmonology issue, it’s not just a pulmonology issue because he has a trach.

 

And so ENT is automatically involved.

 

Jamaal:

Cardiology, the lungs, the heart, everything runs together. So it’s, everybody has to be on the same page.

 

Yadi: Yeah. So we all advocate because it’s easy for us to advocate for him because we’re all always on the same page.

 

Jamaal: Yeah. And, and as far as the advocating goes they’re not. As a man, seeing it firsthand, being there. They are not really used to deal with fathers. So being that I was there. It was like, well, you know, mom, dad, and it’s like, you know, when, when we got some I don’t wanna say not so promising, but something we didn’t make, you know, it’d be like, babe, I got this, you know, and then other times it’d be like, no, no, baby, I got this, go play with it, I got this, you know, so it was like, we, we play with each other’s strengths, it’s like, I’m, it’s like, she’s she’s a type A personality, very meticulous, like, wait, but this, that, this, that, I’m very technical and analytical when I read body language, She does too, but like she’s hormonal.

 

She had a baby. You know, she’s pumping. It’s different. You know, it’s like, you know what? It’s like, it’s like, oh dad, you’re so hands on. It’s like, the one thing she can control is creating sustenance for that baby. Everything else, we gotta, you know, we gotta leave them to doctors and science. Like, whatever I need to do so she can do that, that’s what I’m gonna do.

 

So, for them, it was like, yeah. It was like, Oh, it’s so cool to see a dad involved. And it’s like, I have a father, like, what do you mean? You know? So it was kind of like, you know, you hear that a couple of times and then you look at them, like, what exactly do you mean by that? Then it’s like, well you know, not to put the foot in the mouth, like, but you know what, okay, they’re here. You know, we got to deal with them, you know, kind of thing. So it was like, that is hands. I feel like they looked at us a little bit different because of that.

 

Givette: I think the idea that you guys have a good support system and you made it a comprehensive care team, not just one person telling you what to do or what, you know, you, you guys are involved and making sure that you’re in the care planning as well. I think that’s super impactful. In terms of having, you know, a child that’s necessarily a little bit different than others. Do you have any challenges on, on how your family or others interact with him and how you encourage the rest of the family to interact?

 

Jamaal: No, he’s the first grandchild on both sides.

 

Everybody was happy he was there. Like they they trusted us, like we kept everybody away from him. It’s like they could visit him in the hospital. When he was in Jersey, the grandparents would come. When he came home, it was like, Oh, he’s home. Okay, you know what? They’ll let us know when it’s safe to visit kind of thing.

 

So like, it was just, it was like, look, he’s going to come. He’s going to have a trach. He’s going to be on a ventilator. So know that ahead of time. If you can’t deal with that, we’re fine sending pictures. If you can deal with it, deal with it. We’re not going to cry around him, all smiles. If you can’t do that, respectfully, stay away.

 

We got to protect our peace. We got to protect his peace. That’s it. Protecting the positivity bubble for him. That’s right. We live in a bubble. That’s what I always say. I live in a bubble. I love that.

 

Givette: Is there any resources or any support that was a little bit different or anything you can share with others that, that could be helpful to them?

 

Yadi: Honestly, I feel like as far as You know resources from earlier. So because we came from a hospital environment, you know, he was in the hospital for basically the first year of his life. And so a lot of the conversations that we knew we needed to have as far as Nursing as far as what services he was going to need once we were home.

 

We started those conversations at the hospital, so we were very adamant on having conversations with social work and starting, you know, paperwork when we were at the hospital so that we were dealing with a little bit less once we came home. Also, once we came home, those resources didn’t stop being resources.

 

If we had questions, we were still reaching out to the hospitals. We were still reaching out to social work. We were still reaching out to PT and OT because we, you know, we build relationships. And so whenever we had challenges with the nurses or with other providers. We would always reach out to them and say, Hey, we’re dealing with this. How can we move forward? How can, you know, this, these were the things that you were working with Aiden at the hospital. How can we carry it over now that we are home and we have a completely different team?

 

Jamaal: It was, resource-wise. One thing that I would recommend is, like, if you come, like, if you’re in a hospital or rehab facility, something like one of those kind of transition before you get home.

 

I don’t want to, I don’t like to say take advantage of the resources because, you know, it has a bad connotation, take advantage. But, like, when they’re there you’re not alone, you’re not in it alone. Ask everybody for anything, like, you know. When you come home, it’s like you’re here, you get used to living in a hospital, and it’s like you’re coming home, it’s overwhelming.

 

It’s like, okay because the first thing they say, they say, okay, if your child needs nursing, let’s talk to agencies now, get some things ironed out. Supplies gotta come, it’s like supplies gotta come to the house. You got to be here for them to open the supplies, like don’t open it. And then we in Jersey going back and forth.

 

It’s like the social workers are there to, to work for you socially. Socialize with your social worker, you know, like ask every question, like if this goes wrong, if this goes wrong, this goes wrong. Okay. What type of services do my child have? Your child’s going to need X, Y, Z. Okay. What does my child qualify for X, Y, Z.

 

But you know, because of insurance, okay. How long does that take? When can we start on that? When is the discharge date? The discharge date is, is, is a month away, two months away. Okay, how, how long do we need to get this started? Like, you know, just get the ball rolling. Like, when you, cause when you’re in the hospital, when you’re there, when you’re gone, if you’re, if you’re a if you’re a difficult parent, they may not answer your phone call.

 

So, like, while you’re there, everything that they can do for you, make sure they do it. And always ask the question, you know, why is this? Because X, Y, Z, why is this? But why is this? If this happens, what happens? If this happens, what happens? What happens this? What happens this? If I don’t get this, what do I do?

 

If I don’t get this, what do I do? Ask everything because, like, that’s what they’re there for. You know? As because, you know, a lot of people will say, you know what? I do this myself. I don’t want to overwhelm them. It’s like, having a child that way is overwhelming already. You know, like, if they can ease that burden for you, by all means, let them ease it.

 

Let them do it. A lot of them will, more than happy to accommodate you with that.

 

Givette: You got to kind of become the expert yourself but using those resources to become the expert.

 

Jamaal & Yadi: for sure

 

Givette: And can you just give us that was a good segway into giving us a little bit information about what your experience has been like since you joined white glove or, or how was for you working with white glove in the beginning until now.

 

Jamaal: From White Glove, we actually We have we have this gentleman, young man, Loejjie. He’s been with us from like day one. We first came home. He goes to school, I’d in three days a week. He’s like part of the family. Like my, my mother baked cookies and say, did Loejjie get his cookies? You know Hey, like like Francis, like Loejjie, Loejjie doesn’t drink, you know? So she’s like, okay I don’t drink either.

 

She goes, oh, you know. I, I was like, Oh, you know, me and Loejjie still be enjoying a non alcoholic wine. I’m going to buy him his own so you don’t have to share yours. He deserves his own. Like, that’s. He’s a younger guy. He’s younger than us. We call him, he’s like Aydin’s best friend, uncle, cousin, something. He’s been with us from day one.

 

He’s part of the family. White Glove, we, we’ve been with them, like you said, three years prior. In total, probably three years because we were speaking before we came out. We, we only, it’s our only agency. Some people, they have to go to multiple agencies. Like, White Glove is our only agency. So why goes only agency, you know, we have Loejjie, we have a strong nursing team.

 

I just keep saying Loejjie because he’s been with us the longest, but we have a strong nursing team. And we also love Rose . We love Rose. Yeah.

 

Givette: You got to shout her out because she’ll be Like, excuse me, I was on the call and I did not hear my name.

 

Jamaal: Yeah, Rose, Rose Schwartz.

 

Givette: That’s what we want to hear. You know, our goal is always to provide that quality of care. We understand how difficult, you know, it can be just to get the services together and to find someone who, who connects with, you know, your child and making sure that they understand the care plan and making sure that the the care plan is individualized to, to provide what’s necessary. So I’m so happy to hear that you’ve had a great experience. And then I think we’re running a little bit out of time. So if you guys have any message that you want to share with anyone on the call or anyone that might be going through your situation.

 

Yadi: So for all the parents out there, whether you’re just starting, you know, this journey or you’re halfway through, or, you know, wherever you are at in your nursing journey. Make sure, you know, make sure you, you get to know your nurses, right? They’re here. They become part of your family. Whether you like it or not, they become part of your family.

 

And so, get to know them. Ask questions. Work together. You know, at the end of the day, these are our Children, right? But they’re here to take care of our Children. And so we all have to work together to make sure that our child is thriving. If you have a nurse and you feel like it’s not working out, it’s okay.

 

They might be the best fit for another family. And it just doesn’t work out with yours. It’s okay. Speak up, say something, call, call your coordinator and have a very honest conversation. You rather have a conversation early on than to try to, you know, force a shoe that doesn’t work, right? You know, White Glove is a good agency.

 

You use them. Like that’s what that’s what we’re here for. We’re trying to work together to make sure that our Children are taken care of. So speak up, be an advocate for your Children when it comes to the nurses too. They can be nurses for 20 30 years. You still might be the best nurse for your child because you’ve been with your child the longest.Yes. And that’s okay. Right? Just work together.

 

Jamaal: Pay attention to everything the doctors say, like, literally in children specialized before we took him home. And we did this early on. We were there from January to July. In order to take him home, we had to pass a test, individually, 24 hours taking care of him.

 

If we went to the bathroom without telling the nurse, Hey, I’m going to the bathroom, we failed. If we, if we just walked out without saying, Hey, I’m going to lunch, can you give me 15 minutes? We failed. We had to compound meds. We had to measure, we had to trans, you know, we had to translate milligrams to milliliters.

 

We had to, we had to hit the medicines on time. Aydin, he, he had a lot more medicines in the hospital than he does now. We had to hit those on time. The CPR training, we had to do that, you know, the CPR with the trach. We had to do that, to learn the vent. Like, we actually had to go to a class to learn how to use the vent.

 

We had to go to a CPR class. Loejjie is like, we have great nurses. Loejjie is by far the best nurse we have. But he’s not, he doesn’t take care of Aiden the way we do. Like, he takes care of Aiden like 110 out of 100. We’re like 125. Like, he He doesn’t hold a light to us, like, because, like, it’s, he, he loves Ida and Ida loves him and everything, but it’s a different level of care when he’s yours.

 

Make sure you have to do that. They also say when we went in rehab, they would tell us, like, make sure you pay attention because you’re gonna have to train your nurses. We’re like, what are you talking about? Us train a nurse? Like, how? You know, finance admin, what are you talking about? We got home, we was like, we see exactly what they’re talking about.

 

Like, exactly what they’re talking about. It’s like, it’s like, yeah, I’ve been a nurse for 40 years. But could you refresh me on the event? This is a different type of event. You know, it’s like, okay, this is, that’s like, okay, this is how we do it. But I’m not familiar with that metaphyte or this is like we use kind of thing.

 

So yeah, just you’re the best nurse that y’all have and like follow your gut.

 

Givette: Again, you guys became the experts. I see that. I see how you guys talk about him and everything you guys light up when you speak of him. So I really appreciate you guys taking the time. I’m so happy that everything’s working out and we’re going to have to send Loejjie some lunch or something. We got the huge shout out.

 

Yadi: He would appreciate it! Thank you so much.

 

Givette: Now we’re going to transition over now. We’re going to have Dina Levitz. She’s going to lead us in a session today of meditation. Dina, are you able to unmute yourself?

 

Dena Levitz, Breathing & Yoga Instructor: There we go. Can you hear me? All right. Great. Okay, wonderful. I can get going. So thank you very much, first of all, for having me. It’s really nice to well, I was going to say see, but to be with you all. My name is Dina. I’m a yoga and mindfulness teacher based in New York, and I just want to thank bring the gym to me, which is an agency that I work for where I teach yoga and different mindfulness practices to individuals and small groups.

 

So, yeah. So today what we’re gonna do a little bit, ooh, as more people kind of come on in , we’re gonna do a little bit of self care, a little bit of kind of breathing and bringing hopefully a little bit of relaxation into your mind and your body. And if you’re thinking I’ve never done yoga or meditation before that’s totally fine.

 

I’m gonna talk you through it. We’re going to just kind of do a few simple movements just to kind of ground ourselves. We’re going to do a few breath exercises. Great. And then and then I’m going to kind of talk you through a little bit of kind of a guided meditation. And I’m gonna, we’re all in different spaces.

 

We’re at home. We have different amounts of space, but I’m going to invite you to start seated. And then later on, you’re welcome to lie down if you have enough. Space to do that, but this, I want this to be for you. So yeah, so and also welcome to kind of use blankets, use anything that you, that you might have around you to help you.

 

Okay, so without further ado, we’re going to start by wherever you’re sitting. If your feet are on the floor, just let them release down to the floor and sit up nice and tall. See if you can elongate through your spine and together we’re just going to take a couple of cleansing breaths just to let ourselves be here.

 

So we’re just going to take a big breath in through our nose. Let yourself fill up and then you’re going to open your mouth and sigh it out. So you can make a nice big noise. You’re in a safe space. You’re probably muted. Let’s do that three more times. So we’re going to breathe in through our nose. Open mouth.

 

Exhale. Let it go. Good. Two more times. Breathing in. Sigh it out. And then one more time. Take a slow breath in. Sigh it out. And then you can let yourself breathe normally again. And we’re just going to release a little tension through our body. So starting with our shoulders where we hold a lot of tightness, you’re just going to shrug your shoulders up towards your ears.

 

And then as you breathe out, you’re going to roll them back and down. Yeah, nice and easy. Do that again. So take those shoulders up and then softly let them roll back and down. Good. Do that a few more times. So just taking your shoulders back and around. Notice some kind of opening in your heart. Just let your body be really nice and loose as you do this.

 

Awesome. And then the next time that you take your shoulders up and you softly melt them down, see if you can keep them as far away from your ears as possible. Awesome. And then from here, we’re going to take our right ear to our right shoulder. Yeah, it doesn’t really matter which way. And then we’re just going to take our chin down towards our chest and then roll your left ear towards your left shoulder.

 

So we’re creating some little half circles. So you’re just going to do that a few more times. So you’re just rolling your head from side. To side, nice and easy. Kind of taking any tension that you might have out of the back of your neck, your head. And just these little movements we’re going to do, it doesn’t matter how it looks, it’s just about kind of getting a little bit of easy, easy kind of movement into our body where we might hold tightness just to let ourselves be here.

 

Great, and then you’re just going to bring your head back towards center, and then we’ll take almost like a little slow nod of our head, so you’re just going to look up towards the ceiling. And then look down towards the floor, and then one more time, looking up, good, let yourself look down, and then look forward.

 

You can let your eyes be kind of loose and gentle here, and then just be mindful of your surroundings. We’re going to take our arms and we’re just going to stretch them out to the side. Yeah, just nice and wide, lift your heart, expand, take up a little space as you do this, a big breath in, and as you breathe out, you’re just going to give yourself a hug.

 

Yeah, you’re going to wrap one arm over the other, get kind of small here, almost a little cozy, tuck into a little ball, and then let’s do that again. Let’s open our arms, stretch them out to the side, lift your heart, and then as you breathe in, take your other arm on top and give yourself that hug. So we’re giving ourself a little love, but we’re also kind of stretching out our spine.

 

Just a few more times, you’re just going to open those arms out, so stretching them, lift your heart, expand your body, and then give yourself a hug. As you breathe out. Good. Two more times, just like that. So open those arms, give yourself a little stretch, and then let them close. And then one more time, give yourself a big kind of stretch through the arms, through the heart.

 

And then that nice hug. Yeah. Feel that kind of hugging in that warmth. And then take your arms and you’re gonna unwrap them. And give them a nice shake. Shake out your fingers. Shake out your hands, your arms. Feel some energy kind of move through your body. Yeah, you can even kind of shake out through your face a little bit.

 

We’re just going to do this for about three, two, one, and then stretch those arms out again. This time we’re going to take a little twist. So you’re going to bring your right hand to your left knee. Just kind of look over your shoulder. Yeah, revolve your body so you’re facing forward again, stretch those arms, breathe in.

 

Take a little twist the other way, so just like you’re looking over your shoulder, good. Come back through center, stretch those arms, this time take them up nice and high. I’m going to scooch back so you can see me a little better. Wiggle your fingers out, again, kind of make your body nice and vibrant before we get still.

 

So shake out those hands, those arms, maybe a little bit of kind of swirling. Spirit fingers, feel that energy for three, two, one, and then let your arms release down towards your sides. Okay. And then just pause for a moment. Just notice how you feel just from a few kind of minutes of just kind of moving your body.

 

Hopefully you feel a little bit more kind of centered a little bit more here and in your body. And once you’ve done that, yeah, we’re just going to take one hand to our belly. You’re going to take one hand to your heart. It doesn’t matter which one, and we’re doing this so that we’re going to come into a little bit of a breath practice.

 

And we’re placing our hands here so that we can feel kind of that direct contact of ourselves breathing. And as you do this, you can kind of let the elbows release down. And if you feel comfortable, you can even close your eyes, power them down. Or let them maybe kind of halfway close. Just let yourself tune in to yourself.

 

Try to lower the shoulders down. Bring your body into a little bit of stillness. Feel your feet flat on the floor. So we’re sitting up kind of tall but not getting tight here. And then we’re going to do a little bit of a breath practice where we’re going to breathe in and out through our nose. for a count of four.

 

So I’ll, I’ll take you through it. Don’t worry, but we’ll breathe in for four and we’ll hold for a kind of mini pause at the top. And then we’ll breathe out for four, just to kind of smooth out, even our breath, bring a little bit of peacefulness into our whole essence. So go ahead and kind of sigh out at the bottom and then gently seal your lips.

 

And then we’re just going to breathe in for one. 2, 3, 4, and then breathe out for 4, 3, 2, 1. Do that again. Empty at the bottom, and then breathe in for 1, 2, 3, 4. Breathe out. 4, 3, 2, 1. Let’s do another round. Breathe in. 1, 2, 3, 4, and breathe out. Four, three. One more collective round together, breathing in. One, two, three, four.

 

And then breathe it out. Four, three, two, one. And then you’re going to keep going, just in that same breath pattern. So seeing if you can keep breathing for four, or maybe even five or six. And then just as slowly let yourself breathe out. And for another few rounds, just kind of keep your hands here and notice that feeling of each breath.

 

So where it ends, where it starts. Maybe your chest and your belly kind of rise and fall a little bit with that action of breathing. Yeah, we breathe 30, 000 times in a day. And sometimes it’s nice to just kind of stop and just appreciate that breath, focus our energy on just each inhale, exhale, feeling that appreciation of being alive, being here.

 

Good, so try to keep establishing, keep going with that kind of slower, even breath pattern. If you like keeping your hands here, you can keep them there, or maybe just let them rest in your lap, and you can keep the eyes closed. You’re just going to keep breathing in that same way, but this time I’m going to introduce a little affirmation, a little kind of phrase that you’re going to say to yourself that’s going to kind of tie in with the breathing.

 

So each time that you feel yourself breathing in, Maybe you ease up on the counting and you just kind of feel it since you’ve established that pattern. But each time you breathe in, think about the idea of calm, of bringing calm into your body. And each time that you feel yourself breathing out following that breath, think about the idea of letting go.

 

So what’s something that you can release in your body? So we’ll take some rounds like that. So just feeling yourself breathing in, tying that to a sense of calm, feeling yourself breathing out, and thinking of the idea of letting something go, some tightness in your body, your mind. And you’re just going to keep repeating that.

 

And the mantra, the affirmation is going to be, I inhale peace, I exhale to release. So you’re just going to, I’m going to talk you through a few more rounds. I’m going to get quiet for a moment so you can kind of practice that, but you’re just going to keep feeling yourself breathing. And as you breathe in, you say to yourself, I inhale peace.

 

And as you breathe out, say to yourself, I exhale to release.

 

I inhale peace. I exhale to release. I inhale peace. I exhale to release.

 

I inhale peace. I exhale to release. And then I’d like you to keep going and do about five rounds on your own, just kind of practicing that idea of just following your breath. And each time you feel that inhale, bringing to mind peace. Each time you feel that exhale, bringing to mind a sense of release.

 

You’re going to stay with this feeling, stay with that energy, that observation of just keeping that steady breath, of giving your mind that idea of peacefulness and letting go. And then if you want to stay seated for the next part, you can stay seated and I’m just going to give you a moment if there’s folks who are at home and who have the desire and maybe the space and ability to kind of lie down.

 

You can lie down on your floor, on bed, on a couch. Go ahead and do that. Just an option. It’s totally fine to be sitting up or to be lying down

 

in whichever way that you’re positioned. I want you to let your hands, your arms just get really comfortable. So those sitting, you can still keep them in your lap, lower your arms down to your side, any way that feels good. And we’re just going to bring ourselves even into more of kind of like a full body relaxation.

 

If they’re not already, let your eyes close here. And then I’m going to talk you through a little bit of a body scan where we’re going to go from kind of our feet all the way up to our face, just encouraging our body to relax. And there’s no need to move anything. Just going to bring awareness to that part of your body and just see if you can kind of feel it, maybe even take a moment to kind of be grateful for that part of your body and then just let it soften and relax.

 

So go ahead and bring your awareness to your toes, to your feet, your heels, the soles of your feet, and just allow them to relax.

 

Noticing your ankles, bringing your awareness up to your shins, your calves, and just allowing them just to relax.

 

And then start to take your awareness kind of up your, each leg, just being aware of your knees. And as much as you can, whatever position you’re in, just let your knees soften and relax. The tops, the backs, the bottom of your knees. And then just guide your attention kind of up each leg, feeling your thighs, your hips, your pelvis.

 

We tend to hold a lot of emotion here. So see if you can just let your legs be kind of heavy. Releasing through that whole lower half,

 

and then start to bring attention to your back. So if you’re sitting up nice and tall, you could even kind of lean yourself back onto a chair, or if you’re lying down, let the floor, let something support you

 

just as much as you can. Relaxing through your whole spine,

 

just feeling your lower, your middle, your upper back, just kind of untighten, release.

 

And then we’re just going to guide our awareness kind of to the front of our body. So feeling your belly, and you might notice kind of a little movement as you breathe your belly rising and falling and just let it be really soft. So no need to kind of tighten or tense anything, hold yourself strong.

 

Just let it go. And then bringing your awareness up towards your chest, towards your heart, feel your heart beating,

 

feel that sense of love kind of light up within you, and just give yourself permission just to kind of relax through your chest,

 

and then take your awareness to your shoulders, where often they’re scrunched way up towards our ears, where we hold a lot of kind of stress. See if you can let that go. So no need to hold the weight of the world on your shoulders. Just let them release down, whether you’re lying down, whether, whether you’re sitting up, just let them go

 

and then bring some awareness to your neck, to your throat. Let them soften

 

and notice the different parts of your face. So there’s nothing that you need to see right now. Just let the eyes be soft, whether they’re closed or partially closed. Notice if you’re holding your jaw tight. It could even take a little bit of kind of jostling, a little bit of movement of your jaw, your mouth, just to let it soften and relax with the tongue.

 

Just be heavy. Let your lips and your teeth and your jaw just be really kind of relaxed. Bring your awareness to your cheeks,

 

to your nose.

 

And then to your forehead, the space between our eyebrows is considered our third eye where we hold a lot of wisdom. So if you notice that you’re kind of scrunching up your face at all, try to let it relax.

 

And then really let your mind just kind of relax. There’s so often thoughts that are running through, distractions kind of taking you away. Just let your mind and your body be here as much as you can.

 

And then try to bring that awareness back to your breathing, feeling that sense of each inhale and exhale,

 

maybe lulling you into a little bit of a state of calm.

 

And then again, with hopefully your whole body, feeling a sense of softness and relaxation, just returning to this idea of peacefulness and releasing. And you’re just going to take the next kind of two minutes. I’ll just kind of quiet my voice. And just let yourself be in peaceful stillness. If you want to give your mind something to focus on, again, this affirmation, this idea of I inhale peace, I exhale to release.

 

And in two minutes, I’ll kind of come back and lead you out of this. Just take that time just to let yourself be here in that kind of relative quiet stillness.

 

Very slowly, very lovingly, very gently. Just start by bringing a little bit of awareness back. So just noticing, just feeling your body again, and then feel the ground underneath you. So if you’re sitting, Just feel where your feet are making contact with the ground. You’re lying down. Kind of feel the ground underneath you.

 

Maybe where your back, your shoulders, your neck are kind of making contact and then you’re just gonna take some little movements. We’re just gonna gradually kind of reawaken. So start by wiggling your fingers. Wiggle your toes. And gently take your head from side to side.

 

I’m not doing too much that you need to look at, so your eyes can stay closed if that feels good. You can start to blink them open, kind of letting light in. And then we’re going to bring our hands together. So let the palms join and then just give them a little rub. So bring a little bit of warmth. back in through your fingers.

 

In yoga we call it prana, so that, or in chi, that same idea of kind of life force energy. So feel that generated in your hands. And then I’m going to invite you to take your fingers, oh they’re nice and warm and maybe tingly, give yourself a little bit of a quick massage. So you’re just going to take your hands and guide them kind of down towards your jaw.

 

the contours of your face, if you want to use them kind of on your neck, your throat, there’s no wrong way to do this or right way. Maybe your shoulders, if you know that you tend to hold tight and it’s kind of here or that space between your eyebrows, you can kind of swipe them across your forehead.

 

You know, just a little bit of kind of care and love for yourself as you care for others so often just give yourself a few moments sometimes just to kind of breathe, just to move them to be still and invited that peacefulness and then when it feels like enough. Can let those hands kind of settle down and we’re just going to bring them over our heart So we’re going to place one on our heart and then one over that hand so you can feel that contact again of your heart beating and Maybe invite kind of a gentle little smile on your face letting the corners of your mouth turn up together Let’s take just a deep slow breath in and then slowly release it out Let’s just do that two more times.

 

Just breathing in, feel yourself expand, and then breathing out. And then one more time, you can make as much noise as you like. Take a breath in, and then really, maybe dramatically, even sigh it out.

 

And then just notice how you feel right now. For me, kind of the favorite, my favorite part of meditation sometimes is that moment I open my eyes up again and you get to experience the world kind of fresh and new and maybe you feel a little bit different from just taking those, those, that little bit of time for yourself.

 

I hope that was really helpful or help or even a little bit helpful. Thank you so much and have a wonderful rest of your day and whatever comes next in this great program.

 

Givette: Thank you so much, Dina. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to go to back to work after that. I don’t know. Thank you. I just want to give the floor to our CEO, Nadia Naranjan, she was able to join us for the meditation session so she can say a few words and then I’ll let everybody go about their day.

 

Go ahead, Nadia. Unmute yourself. One second, you’re muted. One second, Nadia, you’re muted.

 

Nadia: Hello,everyone, can you hear me? Hi, my name is Nadia Naranjan and I’m the CEO of White Love Community Care. I’m very, very sorry that I wasn’t able to join at the beginning, but I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for joining us today in our very first MyCommunity initiative event. This is being done for our valued patients.

 

We would like you to have more resources and support and to know that we are always here for you. I hope today we’ve learned some valuable lessons. We’ve gained insight and we were able to connect with each other in a meaningful way. And I’m sure we’re going to host more events so that you can continue gaining from us.

 

We also ask each of you to feel free to communicate with us and how you think we can help you and support you in a bigger way than sending a caregiver to your home. So once again, thank you for joining. I hope today was eventful and I look forward to many more. Back to Givette.

 

Givette: Thank you, Nadgive meia. Well, thank you for an incredible session today.

 

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the Martin family for sharing their personal journeys to Dina for that wonderful meditation center centering and just, I’m thankful to be part of this community. Your voices, your stories and your presence make all the difference. So thank you again for joining us and look out in your emails for that Uber Eats gift card.

 

Okay. Thank you guys. Have a great day!