[MUSIC] So we are here, Giovanni again and we are going to have a dialogue. I was going to say we're going to have some questions and answers, but hopefully we're just going to have a dialogue. >> True. >> So first of all I really enjoyed your presentation and students did too. The main question that I have because when you were talking about pattern interrupters and pattern builders. It was such a new concept for me that I was constantly thinking about it and trying to apply to my own daily activities and the habits that I like to break or build. So can you give us maybe one or two more examples of habits that you have formed using this method? >> Sure. >> Building habits, what was it? Pattern interrupters and pattern builders. >> Pattern builders? I say that 2019 was my most stressful year of life, but it taught me so much and I learned pattern interrupters and powder builders all throughout that year. >> Okay. >> One really cool and that I learned, that I didn't share in the class was say for example, Kite and Kite allows me to not lose my cooler, not be upset. >> Okay. >> And in certain situations where say for example, you're at work or you're dealing with stressful people, it reminds me to keep my cool in certain moments and to not take things personal. >> Okay. >> And in that moment I have a code in my mind to break a habit or break a certain pattern that I have of wanting to take things personal and allowing me to move over it. That could be one thing that students can apply to if they get a bad grade or if they work with someone in a study group that is not really pulling their weight. So I be upset or can I just tell myself this one thing that allows me to keep going? It's okay, how can we make the best? >> So its one word? >> Yeah. >> And your word is quite, that's what you use. >> And it's funny because that one word can allow you to think about so much. That's the beauty of it. When I was losing the weight and I was 300 pounds and I wanted to quit because I was so heavy and I didn't think that I was going to lose any weight >> I thought it meant my coach's face and his face upset me and I wanted to prove him wrong. >> So the imagery of him was my code to not quit. And I hope that the students can think of certain things in which, they're thinking about quitting or if they're in a class where it's difficult, they can put that pattern interrupter in their mind and say, I'm going to do this. >> Okay. So you were talking and I was listening to you but I was even in the classroom, I was thinking. So tell me if this is considered a pattern builder or interrupted. So in this class I like to encourage my students to exercise and be active. And what I try to do in my life is to be active every day, to do something every day. And in the beginning I told myself that, okay, I am going to commit to exercise one hour every day. And I failed. I failed miserably because there are days that there is no way that I can put in an hour. So then I changed this commitment and I said, I'm going to do something every day. For instance, this morning I woke up, it was like 6:30 and I really wanted to leave the house early latest 7:30 to come to work, and I really didn't have any time to exercise. But the image of my students in this class, [LAUGH] And I found no one came to my mind and I told myself that no, I have to do something. So I went on a stationary bike and I exercised for 15 minutes, and then I got ready and I left the house. So thinking about the students in the class that I'm not going to go in the class and tell my students. So you need to be active and exercise every day if I'm not doing that myself. Is that considered a pattern interrupter? >> That sounds like a pattern builder. >> Pattern builders. >> You're a great professor and you already. >> Thank you,. >> [LAUGH] You already to your students. Well, so you're building a pattern of not wanting to give them anything less than what you've been doing so far. And that's a great learning experience. So I would consider that a pattern builder. >> Okay. >> And sometimes you have to build from pattern interrupters, creative pattern builder. And I say that to say whenever I was losing weight if I wanted to eat something unhealthy, and I thought man that pizza looks good, I would break that pattern of me trying to be healthy and eat a bunch of pizza. So I broke the pattern interrupter and ate a bunch of pizza so my body could see how it felt. And I would feel heavy, I wouldn't want to go to class, I would feel sick. >> I like this pattern. >> [LAUGH] And what my body learned from that, I like that in a moment when I was eating it. But what my body learned from it is the feeling of feeling lethargic after eating pizza. And that helped me to learn to not eat the unhealthy food and from that I get a pattern builder to eat healthy. >> Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. >> Yeah. >> That makes sense. I have another question for you. What makes you get up every morning and do what you do? >> The really cool thing that helps me wake up every morning is to support the youth that I work with. >> Okay. >> My mentor tell me sometimes that through my surfing journey and I've been so lucky to learn to surf from South Central. My mentor says there might be a kid that hasn't found his first wave yet. That was just like me. And that's so powerful and that wakes me up to help to support the youth because it makes me want to break bad habits and build their habits to help to be able to be in a better position to aid them. And so what gets me to wake up in the morning is to support the kids by supporting myself to be in a bigger position to add value to their lives in any way that I can. >> So is that why you decided to go to graduate school? To get closer to. >> I want to be able to gain knowledge from graduates for to be able to come back to my community and help out. There's a lot of people who don't know that living sustainably. I'm studying for my Masters and sustainable leadership that living sustainable in an environment where you're you have a low income can actually help you with cost of living and things like that. So that's and I'm also studying for my M.B.A. as well. So I want to bring some of these practices back to my home community and help them build in those two regards. Yeah. >> Very good. And my final question is what makes you smile? And you have a great smile. >> [LAUGH] One big thing that makes me smile is to put smiles on other people's faces. And when I say that I say one big thing to go deeper with that is to volunteer and they give back. When I was teaching the kids to surf in my in the nonprofit program that I worked with youth mentoring connection. One of the kids at the end of the summer session, he told us that he went in the water with his volunteer as a stranger and they came out of the water as friends. And he was smiling and he was happy because this circumstance where we're teaching them surfing, being an open environment where we're experiencing nature, they went in the water as strangers and they came out with a bond. And that made me happy because we're doing something that's impacting them not tomorrow, but today. So what makes me happy is putting smiles on the kids faces and also volunteering my time to make a difference in their life? >> Yes, I I know about your volunteering because it's so hard to plan anything with you because you volunteer every weekend. He volunteers every weekend. So we can't have any social activities. >> [LAUGH] We gotta get you some waves soon. l Okay. Yes, that would, that would be good. Do you have any questions for me? >> I'm really curious how students will apply the pattern directors and pattern buildings in their lives. And I hope that they are very intentional about which ones they're trying to break in, which ones are trying to build. >> Okay. >> The mind is almost in a way of muscle. And if we treat it in a way where we were just taking from it to be able to go do task from day by day. And that's all be. If we treat it in a space where we're building patterns or building codes in our mind to do certain things, whether it be to be hyper focused when you're studying, to do the best you can in school. These are things that could be transformative in your academic experience. So I'm hoping that they can focus on the pattern builders and pattern interrupters to see how it attacks them, not just in your class, but throughout their whole time at the university. >> I will try to because they will come to office hours and office hours are much smaller group discussion. So I will ask them. I will ask them how they implemented this strategy for building better habits and I will report back to your promise. I'll definitely those emails. It's a good conversation because I think. >> That it is. >> It is around the country, rarely have a conversation about mental health and the patterns that lead down to mental breakdowns or lead down to having the best mental status for get success for themselves. So it's a good conversation. I'm glad that you're having with your students. >> So I know I said I don't have any more questions, but now I have one more. >> Of course. >> So we do have a mental health crisis in our colleges nationwide. If you were going to give an advice to a student who is experiencing mental health, but he or she doesn't know where to start, what would you tell that student? >> Working with the youth that I work with they as I was mentioning to some students in class, they are experiencing the same mental breakdowns, but for different reasons. Whether it be they don't have enough for they don't have a family to support them. And I hope that the biggest thing that they do, just like we also tell the youth convention connection is to speak to your community about it, because the person sitting right next to you might be going through the same thing. >> So when you say community, you're talking about their friends and family first? >> And also the mentors that we work with. >> Okay. >> And in addition to that really understand what you're going through by sharing it with others and be intentional about what you do to fix it. We ignore mental health and we say, you know, just keep living for tomorrow. Just keep doing your thing. But it's something that when you suppress it builds up and it's like a volleyball in the water just come up eventually. So the students who are experiencing that, I hope that they share it. Whether it may be like with a college counselor, that might be an intimate setting. So they're open and sharing that or share it with their community because they never know who could benefit from that conversation was listening. >> Very true. Well, I would like to thank once again our speaker Giovanni Douresseau to come to you, see eye to come to our campus and share his amazing, amazing experience with us. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you for having me. >> Thank you. >> I'll be back. >> You will be back. Yes, I hope so. Thank you. [MUSIC]
