RC Mindfulness Pilot Wrap-Up

Monthly RC Mindfulness: Come Fill Your Cup - December 2021

Monthly RC Mindfulness convened on December 1, 2021, for the final session of an 8-month pilot aimed at supporting RC treaters (trainers, champions and all staff at our client agencies) with a mission to:

• Focus on well-being – Fill your cup
• Sustain RC culture – Pour from a full cup
• Do no harm – Care for your cup

Topics, practices and resources offered during the pilot included:

• Compassion meditation
• Gratitude practice
• ‘Being with’ and ‘working with’ practices
• Sitting and walking meditation
• Body scan
• Support anchors
• Trauma-sensitive techniques

Mindfulness Benefits

The mindfulness pilot was created with an understanding that with regular practice mindfulness, offers a host of evidence-based benefits, including:

• Emotional well-being (empathy, resilience, mood)
• Mental fitness (improved attention, reduced bias, greater creativity)
• Physical (lower BP, improved heart health, improved sleep)
• Behavioral (less reactivity, more ethical behavior, greater patience)
• Trauma-sensitive techniques (key for trauma treaters and survivors)

In particular, there is a strong evidence base that compassion meditation helps offset compassion fatigue for caregivers (such as RC treaters) and helps build one’s capacity for present-moment awareness (such as ‘noticing our reactions to others’ that is critically important for RC treaters).

Program Evaluation Results

A program evaluation survey was administered, with 27 participants responding. The results were affirming and offer guidance for mindfulness offerings in 2022. A summary of key results follow.

• Topics connect well with RC - 96.3%
• Facilitator did a good job - 96.3%
• I would recommend this program to others - 96.3%

• Gained practical tips and tools - 100%
• Managed stress more effectively - 66.6%
• Better 'noticed my reactions to others' - 88.9%

• Weekly drop-in sessions - 74.0%
• 30-Day Mindfulness Challenge (January 2022) - 81.4%
• Interest in more mindfulness resources for my agency - 85.2%

Participant Feedback

• "Thank you for diving in to offer and support mindfulness practice. I believe mindfulness is such a beautiful compliment to the existing RC Training. Thank you for being leaders in the field, once again!"
• "I appreciate that we as an agency are taking the well-being of our staff seriously."
• "...I have learned to take care of myself by attending these sessions. I am a work in progress and would like to continue learning with your sessions."
• "Taking time out for me. As the saying goes, I have to take care of myself, so I can take care of others."

Next Steps

We are using data collected from the survey in order to plan our 2022 events. We hope those of you who've participated in the pilot continue practicing mindfulness, access the RC Mindfulness blogs and their resources, and spread the word about your experience to your coworkers.  Stay tuned for news of future RC mindfulness offerings.