WEBVTT - Yolanda’s Story

0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:06.760
<v Speaker 1>Stay Calm is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome

0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:11.920
<v Speaker 1>to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,

0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.520
<v Speaker 1>and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,

0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.159
<v Speaker 1>helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re

0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:22.319
<v Speaker 1>energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version

0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.000
<v Speaker 1>of themselves. And now I want to help you do

0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.720
<v Speaker 1>the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,

0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:35.440
<v Speaker 1>and let's begin today's journey. Dr Elanda Lewis Ragland is

0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.360
<v Speaker 1>a community pediatrician with Children's National Healthcare System in Washington,

0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.360
<v Speaker 1>d C. A faculty member at George Washington University School

0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:47.280
<v Speaker 1>of Medicine, and a mother of three. Although she could

0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.360
<v Speaker 1>have a lucrative medical practice in the Washington suburbs, she

0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>has chosen instead to live and work where she grew up,

0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.480
<v Speaker 1>in Washington's Ward eight, which has the highest crime rates,

0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.759
<v Speaker 1>murder rates, poverty rates, teen pregnancy rates, and death rates

0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:08.440
<v Speaker 1>from COVID nineteen anywhere in the city. And she's been

0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.679
<v Speaker 1>doing all this for eighteen years. Every day she deals

0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.480
<v Speaker 1>with life and death. She hears stories of grief and

0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.520
<v Speaker 1>trauma of young children raised by grandparents because their parents

0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.520
<v Speaker 1>are working long hours or incarcerated, or have died from

0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.640
<v Speaker 1>drug overdose or violence. Dr Raglan is a woman of

0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.560
<v Speaker 1>courage who succeeded in life despite a series of adverse

0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:36.520
<v Speaker 1>childhood experiences that easily might have derailed her path. Her

0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.440
<v Speaker 1>father was a Vietnam veteran who turned to alcohol and

0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.679
<v Speaker 1>became abusive when he returned from combat. Yolanda's mother was

0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.160
<v Speaker 1>a hard worker employed at Boeing, who raised her and

0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:51.120
<v Speaker 1>her three brothers alone in Seattle, where they fled for

0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:56.120
<v Speaker 1>their safety's sake. A tight knit family, Yolanda was devastated

0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.960
<v Speaker 1>when she lost her mother to lupus and a brain aneurism,

0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.560
<v Speaker 1>and a brother to drug abuse. As brutal as all

0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:07.520
<v Speaker 1>this sounds, it's only part of Yolanda's story, and yet

0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:11.680
<v Speaker 1>all those traumas drove Yolanda to search for something, for

0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.080
<v Speaker 1>a way to cope with distress, manage her life be

0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:20.920
<v Speaker 1>present for her children. She started researching meditation. Much to

0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.600
<v Speaker 1>her surprise, Yolanda heard about a course in transcendental meditation

0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.560
<v Speaker 1>being offered for free at the community center where she worked.

0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.160
<v Speaker 1>She learned to meditate, and right away she noticed the

0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.839
<v Speaker 1>technique did what She hoped it built up her resilience

0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:40.040
<v Speaker 1>and immunity to her real life dramas. She also noticed

0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.239
<v Speaker 1>something else. She had a pressing deadline for a new

0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.360
<v Speaker 1>book on childhood obesity, but she had writer's block and

0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.680
<v Speaker 1>had made almost no headway in six months. After learning

0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.560
<v Speaker 1>to meditate, the creativity flowed, and she wrote ten chapters

0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.760
<v Speaker 1>and sent it to the publisher, all within three months.

0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.280
<v Speaker 1>Yolanda has has always been an advocate for community health.

0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.919
<v Speaker 1>Now she saw the benefit of adding meditation to the mix,

0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.760
<v Speaker 1>bringing it to her patients and their families, as well

0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.680
<v Speaker 1>as to her fellow doctors and nurses who are treating

0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.560
<v Speaker 1>patients in the front lines of word eight and beyond.

0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.040
<v Speaker 1>I met you Loanda for the first time in Washington

0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.160
<v Speaker 1>a few years ago during a town hall meeting about

0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:26.080
<v Speaker 1>using meditation as a violence interrupter. I asked her an

0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.200
<v Speaker 1>obvious question. With all the things that are needed in

0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:34.359
<v Speaker 1>war date, better health care, education, housing, jobs, why is

0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:39.080
<v Speaker 1>she advocating for meditation. You need to improve everything. She said,

0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.119
<v Speaker 1>When you live in a violent community with a lot

0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.840
<v Speaker 1>of stress and poverty and depression, it's like everything is

0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.480
<v Speaker 1>already stacked against you. You feel like a victim because

0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.400
<v Speaker 1>you feel like you don't have any control. But with

0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.520
<v Speaker 1>transcendental meditation, you do have control. You are empowered. It's

0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.240
<v Speaker 1>yours for life. You can reduce your anger, you can

0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.280
<v Speaker 1>increase your energy, and if you're a student, you can

0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.920
<v Speaker 1>improve your test scores. I believe this can be anyone's

0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:11.360
<v Speaker 1>ticket out of any bad situation or circumstance. I thought

0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:13.760
<v Speaker 1>long about what my health tip would be after talking

0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.640
<v Speaker 1>about Dr Ragland, and when I think of her, I

0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.120
<v Speaker 1>think of courage, Courage to overcome obstacles, to aim high,

0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.120
<v Speaker 1>courage to be true to herself. And I'm reminded of

0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:29.000
<v Speaker 1>a quote by Maya Angelo. Courage is the most important

0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:33.160
<v Speaker 1>of all virtues, because without courage, you can't practice any

0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:38.080
<v Speaker 1>virtue consistently. So this is my tip wrapped up in

0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.839
<v Speaker 1>Maya's advice. Take courage to do what you know to

0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:47.680
<v Speaker 1>be right. Then all the other virtues will follow. All right,

0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.080
<v Speaker 1>let's end this time together doing something that I think

0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.159
<v Speaker 1>should be a feature of our everyday life, and that's

0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.279
<v Speaker 1>appreciation and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds of quiet,

0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.680
<v Speaker 1>thirty seconds to take a break, just take a moment.

0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.159
<v Speaker 1>It turns out when we do that it's good for

0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:35.080
<v Speaker 1>our health as well. I'll be right back all right.

0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.720
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for joining me today. I hope you heard

0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.320
<v Speaker 1>something that inspires, that uplifts you, and that you can

0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:51.120
<v Speaker 1>incorporate into your own life. This is Bob Roth. Stay calm, hey,

0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.520
<v Speaker 1>all of you out there, I'd love to hear from you.

0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.120
<v Speaker 1>You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything

0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.880
<v Speaker 1>else on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.800
<v Speaker 1>or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me

0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:09.400
<v Speaker 1>an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com.

0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:10.920
<v Speaker 1>I look forward to hearing from you