Settling Into Stillness: Quieting Our Minds

Thursday, December 7, 2023, 10 AM - Noon, Eastern Time

Busyness has become an applauded, seemingly never-ending norm in our culture. We are constantly looking forward and plotting our next move, our next meeting, our next appointment, shopping for and cooking our next dinner and dreading our next load of clothes to be washed. Our To-Do List never ends and we are mentally exhausted!! Slowing down to a more relaxed state of focused stillness seems impossible and impractical to our thinking. Our immediate thoughts revert back to how we have no time to sit with ourselves. While the idea of stillness may not come natural to many of us, it is a practice that can be cultivated.

The key is to create an intention of stillness — to have some intentionality about how we counteract the busyness of everyday life — and to focus on what is going on within. Stillness can take on many different forms depending on what may work best for your lifestyle and your needs. A stillness practice can take form by simply taking in some slow deep breaths, when sitting at your desk, walking slowly or laying down. You can practice stillness in a busy airport, riding on a crowded bus and even when experiencing a chaotic moment. Stillness allows us a time and space to slow down, reflect and hear our own thoughts.

Stillness practice has many potential benefits. It has the power to soothe and calm our nervous (parasympathetic) system, improves mood and sleep, decision-making, concentration and information retention. It helps us to be more effective in our work. Stillness supports us in becoming more grounded as a human being rather than a “human DOing”.

Join us for this 90 minute experiential workshop intended to build on our self-care, self-awareness and self-regulation strategic practices. Come learn and share.

About the Presenter

Carmen Caraballo, MSW, is a seasoned bilingual Master’s Level Social Worker with over 27 years of experience working with children, youth, adults, families, communities, and organizations throughout the Philadelphia area. She possesses a strong clinical background working with various populations, such as pregnant and parenting women, pre-term prevention, home visitation services, early childhood education, child welfare, at-risk youth and violence prevention, reunification, homelessness and housing, smoking cessation, addiction, and substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, trauma work, and critical incidence, hospice, and end of life care. She has provided services along the continuum of direct service practice, case management, clinical counseling and therapy, supervisory and management functions, director of programs and executive leadership, and executive coaching. She has a passion for coaching and partnering with individuals to unlock their fullest potential in order to attain their most desired personal, professional, and creative goals. In her personal time, she enjoys reading, writing, appreciating the wide range of creative arts, listening to jazz really loud, tending to her many plants, and spending quality time with her three amazing adult children, her nine beautiful grandchildren, and her beloved circle of female friends.

About the Resilience Session Themes

After learning skills for workplace resilience - skills that help counter burnout, help prevent secondary traumatic stress, and help strengthen your work within your team and with those to whom you provide service - how do you sustain these skills? This Resilience Series is currently themed each month around one of the letters in CHIME - Connectedness, Hope & optimism, Identity, Meaning, and Empowerment. Using CHIME can help you keep track of your own skills and check in with yourself on how you are doing.

Supported in part by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health

This Resiliency Series is specially offered for community members and organizations who through their work are First Responders or are involved with those affected by the Substance Use Crisis in Philadelphia. The stress of caring for others can affect our bodies and minds. This free virtual series is here to support our workplaces and community and is open to anyone.

For information on Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS), visit #TakeCarePHL at https://www.philadelphiaaces.org/sts. Visit the Events page to sign up for notifications of future events.