The Avengers Understood Their Trauma
It seems as if everywhere we turn there are many different messages on the topics of trauma, mindfulness and mental health wellness. If you walk into your local gym you will see flyers posted in the common area highlighting meditation services, Reiki classes, yoga and many more mental health services. Some gyms have even gone as far as directly hiring individuals that are licensed and certified in these specialties surrounding mindfulness and wellness. Corporations are seeking ways to bring this mindset and practice to their employees and leadership teams. The understanding of the value of having mindful and wellness professionals come and present to your leadership teams and staff is still trying to be clarified and valued. In reality, mindfulness and wellness has always been important and had major value to all businesses and individuals. Being able to use natural ways of attacking the many silent challenges that we encounter in our daily lives is so much more beneficial to our mental and physical well-being. A decade ago there weren’t discussions of practices of breathing techniques and meditation being offered or practiced in a corporate environment or schools. However, it has caught on due to the overwhelming effects that it has had on individuals that are seeking more natural ways of handling these issues surrounding mental and physical health. Also, the movies that are created by marvel do an awesome job of showing the negative and positive effects of mental health. The Avengers go through several forms of it in Infinity Wars.
Using Mindfulness Skills. Like all situations that involve people, it’s a powerful approach to work with individuals both one on one as well as in a group. When you take the approach to working with someone individually you are able to get them to dive deeper into their feelings and their truth of just about any topic that you would like to have discussions with them about. One you have been able to make a breakthrough with an individual one on one then bringing multiple individuals together to have a group discussion about specific topics will be a tad bit easier. With the Avengers every super hero was dealing with their own traumas, which caused for different kinds of responses to those very traumas. Imagine how much more progressive or destructive both hero and villain would have been had they practiced mindfulness skills.
For instance, when Loki died in the arms of Thor in the very beginning, there was this sense of pain and yet what seemed to be regret from Thor. He witness at the hands of Thanos (literally) the execution of his brother. The helplessness that came from him witnessing such an atrocity was nothing that he had dealt with before. For the average human, death resets the standard day to day functions and realities of life. Imagine, that you are a super natural being, with the ability to destroy whatever you set your mind too simply for the the mere sake of doing such. Without ever having to have answered to any form of authority before when you were struck with a conflict or crisis. Would you want to seek a better and more controlled way of handling these types of situations if you could? I’m sure you would. Even the most evil of intended individuals would like to control their rage … especially that rage that stems from a form of trauma. There are different kinds of of breathing techniques that could help you with traumas like that in which Thor witnessed. That trauma of death. Here are two suggestions for you:
Equal Breathing. A breathing technique that’s certain to help calm the mind, body and soul is called equal breathing. It’s perfect for reducing stress, calming your nerves and increasing focus, and can be done anywhere and at any time.
- Take a slow inhale through your nose for a count of four
- Slowly exhale through your nose for a count of four
Abdominal Breathing. Abdominal breathing is one of the easiest breathing techniques, so it’s commonly recommended for beginners starting to meditate. However, it works for everyone and can be used in and outside of meditation, as it’s a powerful way to reduce stress at any given time. It also only takes a couple of minutes to do, making it perfect for any type of situation where you need to recollect yourself.
- Place one hand on your chest
- Place the other hand on your stomach
- Take a deep breath in through the nose
- Feel your hand on your stomach move as you inflate your diaphragm with air
- Slowly release your breath
Effective In The Workplace. In the workplace these above techniques can also help bring better productivity to your leadership and staff. Statistics have shown that for every US$ 1 put into scaled up treatment for common mental disorders, there is a return of US$ 4 in improved health and productivity (World Health Organization). With a statistic as such, why wouldn’t a business want to bring individuals in that can speak with leadership on wellness in the workplace that may include mindfulness practices? The only answer to that question seems to be because of lack of understanding and clarity when it comes to this very topic. Therefore, businesses must open their minds and offices to gaining knowledge and understanding of this major topic that can create greater productivity and results from their leadership and staff alike.
Imagine if the Avengers and other characters from the franchise looked at their ability to evolve in either conquering or saving the earth this way. I dare say that they could have taken a more strategic and effective approach. Now, depending on which side you’re on, that could be a good or bad thing. However, we’re not dealing with super heros from the comic books we’ve read as children, so we need to figure out how to take care of our super heros that help to keep the businesses that we depend on to keep our economies strong.
What will you do to convince your leadership that mindfulness should be discussed and brought into your organization. It starts with a talk and then grows from there. The seed must not only be planted but watered so that it can grow into the fruit bearing tree that it is. Therefore, we must not only help with mindfulness and wellness at home but in the workplace as well. We never know when there is someone dealing with a common trauma such as death, illness or other unseen mental battles.
