13th Episode – 4X Mindfulness: Mindful Moments | Run Your Life #44

In today’s ‘4 X Mindfulness’ episode, our special guest, Mike Kuczala, joins us in sharing valuable insight and wisdom related to strategies and approaches to living a more mindful life. Andy discusses strategies to detect negative thought patterns in our lives and what we can do to break ourselves free of these potentially harmful ways of thinking by applying the ‘pyramid of influence’ into our daily routines. Neila shares her list of 10 intentional ways to bring more joyfulness into our everyday lives and Mike discusses what a gratitude letter is and how he plans to put it into action in his own life by honoring someone who means a great deal to him. Mike also shares his thoughts on the valuable role that music can play in our lives when approached in a very mindful manner. It was a pleasure to record this episode with our good friend, Mike Kuczala. We hope you find as much value in the discussion as we did. Thanks for listening! Andy and Neila’s Bios Neila Steele and Andy Vasily are international educators who have worked at fully authorized IB schools in 4 different countries over the past 16 years (Japan, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, and China). Andy is a consultant, workshop leader, presenter, and speaker. Neila presents and leads multiple workshops in the area of mindfulness. They have devoted themselves to sharing the powerful effects that mindfulness has on promoting greater mental, social, emotional, and physical well-being. Mike’s Bio: Mike Kuczala is a leading authority on using movement and understanding the brain/body connection in both Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 8.31.09 AMeducational and corporate settings.  His keynotes, workshops and professional development programs have been enjoyed by tens of thousands of teachers, administrators, parents, trainers, and corporate executives across the United States. The Director of Instruction for the Regional Training Center, an educational consulting firm based in Randolph, New Jersey, and President of Kuczala Consulting, Mike is the coauthor of the Corwin best-seller and Association of Educational Publishers’ Distinguished Achievement Award nominated The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement.  Mike’s 2nd book, Training in Motion: How to Use Movement to Create Engaging and Effective Learning was released in June of 2015. His standing room only presentations have been experienced in such diverse settings as The American Society for Training and Development, The Forum for Innovative Leadership, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, and the Lawyer Brain OD Roundtable. Mike proudly and humbly comes from a family of educators including his wife, sister, both parents and three grandparents. “I am the product of three generations of teachers. Education is what I love and do. It is always an honor and pleasure to work with both educators in helping them to become true instructional leaders and corporate executives and trainers in providing presentation skill and effectiveness. My background in education gave rise to my love of teaching, public speaking, curriculum and training design, and helping people create goals and live their dreams.” Connect With Neila, Andy, and Mike Neila Twitter: @neilasteele Website: www.mindfulandpresent.com Andy Twitter: @andyvasily Website: www.pyppewithandy.com Mike Twitter: @kinestheticlass Website: mikekuczala.com Email: [email protected] Themes Discussed: Gratitude Letters, Habitual Thought Patterns, The Pyramid of Influence, Cognitive Coaching, Joyfulness, Music, Physical Activity, Reflection, Social and Emotional Well-Being