Olivia Bowser Transcript

This transcript was exported on Feb 02, 2021 - view latest version here. John Boccacino: Hello, and welcome back to the 'Cuse Conversations Podcast. My name is John Boccacino, the Communications Specialist in Syracuse University's Office of Alumni Engagement. I'm also a 2003 graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a degree in broadcast journalism. You can find our podcast on all of your major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. You can also find our podcasts at alumni.syr.edu/cuseconversations and anchor.fm/cuseconversations. Olivia Bowser: Mental wellness feels really heavy and your loneliness or your anxiety or your stress is this weight that is just weighing on you. And it doesn't have to feel that way. And that's the whole reason I started Liberate, it's because when you have a community supporting you, and when you are empowered to work through your anxiety and work on yourself, it takes a lot of that heaviness away. John Boccacino: Well, folks, today on the podcast, we have such a timely guest for our alumni audience. Her name is Liv Bowser, and she is going to talk about mental wellbeing, the mental state that we're all dealing with right now. There's so much anxiety, there's so much uncertainty that comes with life in the year 2021, with the pandemic, with the political landscape. And who better to talk about this than someone who is a certified meditation and mindfulness teacher. She graduated with a Marketing Management Degree from Whitman in 2016. She is the Founder and CEO of the LA-based Liberate Studio, the first ever mental wellness studio in Los Angeles on a mission to bring human beings together through movement, community and mindfulness. And her name is Liv Bowser. How was that for an introduction? Olivia Bowser: That was pretty perfect. I think you covered everything. Thanks for having me. John Boccacino: No, it's great to have you here on the Alumni Podcast, you've got a really interesting story to tell, and we always try to bring relevant guests on here. During this pandemic, we all, whether you've lost a job, whether you've lost a loved one, whether you've been teaching your kids at home and your whole world has been turned upside down, we've all been dealing with anxiety. We've been learning to cope with this anxiety, but it can be uncertain times that we're living in right now. So what advice do you have for people about how we can train our minds to better deal with and cope with this anxiety? Olivia Bowser: Yeah, I think, a lot of my anxiety and my anxiety overwhelm in the past came from not understanding it, not understanding the source and also not understanding that I could coexist with. It whenever I felt anxious, it just completely took me over. It was a little bit paralyzing. And what's really... What the good news is about anxiety is that you can coexist with it and you can befriend it. Olivia Bowser: So, a lot of the meditations I do are around saying hello to your anxiety and welcoming it into your mind and just hanging out together, not trying to push it away or run away from it and just sitting with it and realizing that it's Olivia Bowser Podcast (Completed 02/02/21) Page 1 of 10 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Feb 02, 2021 - view latest version here. manageable and it will pass just like everything else. That's I think the best advice I could give is that nothing is permanent. So, those really intense pockets of anxiety you feel are going to pass, and it might pass in five minutes, it might pass in an hour, but you're not going to feel like that forever. And a lot of the time, when we get anxious, it feels like it's never going to go away. And that's what can be so tough about it. John Boccacino: Yeah. That permanent fear, if you will, that the situation you're living in, whatever you're dealing with on that daily basis, that it's going to resonate forever and not going away, is a hard fact to come to grips with. You mentioned not being afraid of your anxiety, sitting in the room, if you will, with your anxiety and coming to grips with it, it can be easier said than done. So, how do you recommend that people, because there's such a stigma, I think, associated with anxiety, how do we fight through that stigma of the fact that, you know what, it's okay to be nervous, it's okay to have fears that might not be resolved easily? Olivia Bowser: For me, what was really helpful, was finding more of a community around the practice. Mental wellness feels really heavy and your loneliness or your anxiety or your stress is this weight that is just weighing on you. And it doesn't have to feel that way. And that's the whole reason I started Liberate, it's because when you have a community supporting you, and when you are empowered to work through your anxiety and work on yourself, it takes a lot of that heaviness away, and you feel this sense of levity, even when working with an uncomfortable emotion. Olivia Bowser: So, there are so many different apps you can try for mindfulness and meditation, but for anyone seeking more of a community around it, to feel a little bit more supported in your practice, that's what Liberate's for, there are other different live Zoom classes for yoga or live Zoom classes for meditation you can try too, and just find what works best for you. But there's a lot of power in making the practice something that you can do with others instead of feeling like you're on this journey alone. John Boccacino: When we say the phrase, meditation and mindfulness, that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. What does that mean to you? And how has this become your life's work, where you really feel like you've got a talent to give back to people who are looking for these tips and these pointers? Olivia Bowser: I think meditation still has a little bit of a woo-woo connotation. So, we're working on that. But what's really beautiful, and I feel fortunate about this is meditation is, it's been around for a very long time. It's been a format in Eastern culture for since before time essentially. And it has a lot of data surrounding it. Olivia Bowser: So, even if you think it's a little woo-woo, or it's not up your alley, or you're just simply really uncomfortable sitting in silence, you can Google the benefits of meditation and they're truly endless. It actually changes the way your brain works. It creates an inner state of calm. It boosts productivity at work. It boosts Olivia Bowser Podcast (Completed 02/02/21) Page 2 of 10 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Feb 02, 2021 - view latest version here. performance at work. So, even if you think like, "This is a waste of time, why would I sit in silence for 20 minutes?" Olivia Bowser: There are so many benefits that can't be denied around it. And for me, I mean, I still have anxiety, but I used to be pretty anxious and I did not have a good grip on it and it really scared me. And I think that was what stood out to me most is when I was anxious, I needed to go outside, I needed to get moving. It was like I was trying to run away from it, but it was just me. Olivia Bowser: And so, mindfulness is being aware of that and existing with that. And meditation is working to create space around it and create calm around it. So, you just feel better all day. I mean, I feel really calm as a baseline emotion and that was not the case for, I would say, majority of my life. So, I became a certified teacher because I think it's a life-changing modality that has a little bit of a stigma around it. And my goal is to remove that and to empower people to use whatever tools feel right to you. It's not a one-size-fits-all, but whatever tools feel good to you and help you feel better, do that. And that's my only goal. John Boccacino: Why do you think it is that people are so willing to... We're in a new year, people want to work on their physical selves, they want to go get workouts in, they want to change their dietary habits to make sure that they're getting a healthier lifestyle, but it seems like people are a little bit reluctant to get to that mental space when it comes to improving themselves and bettering themselves. Why do you think that people are so slow and there might be that stigma to welcome working on yourself in your mental side of things? Olivia Bowser: I think there's definitely a mentality of, "It's fine. I'm fine." Like when someone asks you how you are, you say, "I'm good, how are you?" Even if you're not good, even if your sky is falling, it's our default to be okay.

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