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During this time of uncertainty, we at FSorb are committed to continuing to offer you tips and practices to help support a quiet and healthy mind. The present-day pandemic and spread of the Coranviras is generating massive amounts of stress due to the change and uncertainty across the globe. In times like these, we’ve found it helpful to come back to some basic emotional intelligence and presence practices so we can truly respond from an empowered and grounded place. We know many people right now are feeling anxiety about their health, concerned about their business or work, or feeling immobilized by travel bans. The common denominator of what many are feeling is fear. Fear is one of the most ancient and core human emotions that is often felt in the solar plexus area. It is important to remember that fear is a normal, healthy, human emotion. Embarrassment around feeling fear or trying to tell yourself not to be afraid just increases the grip of fear. The feeling of fear can range from a slight undercurrent of tightness in the belly to a gripping, breathless feeling in the abdomen leading to a full-on panic. If you are feeling any level of fear along this spectrum, there are ways to catalyze this potentially challenging experience into an opportunity for personal growth and enhanced emotional intelligence. The Mechanics of Fear Fear is a core human emotion felt when under real or perceived threat. It is first and foremost, a survival mechanism. When we detect a source of stress, the brain sends out a cascade of hormones that prime us to either fight or flee from danger. These hormones can cause an increase in heart rate, shallow breathing, and shut down of normal functions, like digestion, to reserve blood flow for muscles. The most ancient parts of our brain associated with safety and survival kick into gear. This limits our access to the most evolved part of the human brain, the prefrontal cortex, which enables us to plan, innovate, and solve complex problems. This explains why when people are in fear they can feel a range of discomfort in their bodies and often act in irrational ways. Additionally, prolonged experiences of fear (such as daily anxiety and stress) puts the body into a compromised state that increases the chance of chronic disease. Catalyzing Fear into Personal Growth Any situation that has the potential to generate fear (such as the current state of affairs in the world) is an opportunity to get to know yourself better by becoming familiar with your personal physical and mental fear responses. With the right practices and tools, we can learn how to regulate our bodies’ responses to fear and develop stronger, more stable nervous systems to keep us grounded and present even in challenging times. How to Face Into Fear and Build Resilience Step 1: Identify your body’s experience of fear. Locate the physical sensation of fear in your body. Where do you feel it? What does it feel like? (An example would be feeling a tight, churning sensation in your belly or shallow breathing in your chest.) On a scale of 1-10 how intense if your fear (1 being slight anxiety, 10 being total panic)? Step 2: Deepen your breath Fear often dysregulates the breath. Spend 5-10 minutes taking deep, full belly/chest breaths. Step 3: Express Your Fear Being willing to say out loud, to yourself or others, “I feel scared,” is a masterful emotional intelligence move. Many people worry the opposite might be true— that “letting the cat out of the bag” will only intensify their fears. In fact, fear thrives on being kept secret, and only once revealed can it begin to lessen. Step 4: Move Even small physical movements (like wiggling your fingers and toes) can begin to move the energy of fear through your body. More intense movement, like fully body shaking or bouncing helps return the body to balance in times of stress. All animals engage in “therapeutic tremoring,” or shaking, after a stressful experience to return homeostasis and release the stress hormones caused by fear. You can encourage this process by voluntarily moving and shaking the body. Step 5: Claim Healthy Response-Ability In moments of fear, many people can feel out of control. You can give yourself your power back by discerning what is within your own responsibility, or personal ability to respond, and what is not. You cannot control the spread of coronavirus throughout the world, the ban of travel, or the mandatory shut down of your business. You can control your personal willingness to address, express and move the energy of your fear to restore your body and brain into a balanced state. From this state of balance, you will be better equipped to make powerful and rational (not panic-based) choices on how you would personally like to respond to your circumstances. We hope you find these suggestions to be helpful and worth passing along to others. If you have any questions please let us know.

Our nervous systems are constantly filtering the sensory overload that is a reality of life today. Emails and texts ping day and night, and we are rarely without a screen in front of us. We scroll through the whirlwind of posts and ads on social media. Distractions can seem like they are coming from everywhere, and that everyone is constantly trying to juggle multiple things at once. Multi-tasking has simply become a way of life. Unfortunately, this modern day habit doesn’t change the biological fact that the human brain does not function optimally while multi-tasking. While we have the tendency to congratulate ourselves for our multi-tasking skill, the fact is that to do more than one thing at a time requires that the brain is actually switch quickly between tasks. Multi-tasking depletes the oxygenated glucose in the brain, diminishing our capacity to focus and reduces productivity by as much as 40%. On the flip side, solo-tasking, or deliberately shutting off all distractions and focusing on one thing for a period of time, increases ability to think creatively and get more done in a shorter period of time. Even more deliberate focusing of the mind, such as in a practice like meditation, has been shown to reduce and anxiety emotional stress long term and reduce the activation of the amygdala, the part of the brain that lights up from fear or worry. In short, multi-tasking stresses us out, but focusing and being present to one thing can make us more productive, creative and feel more peaceful. Here are our top tips for breaking the habit of multi-tasking and being more present: 1. Reduce technology distractions Even though your home or work life may require you to have your devices on, taking as little as 20 minutes to turn everything off and focus on a task in front of you can help you be more productive. If your work or life doesn’t require you to have your devices on all the time, but you notice you do anyway, begin to shift into “check-in times”. Maybe you decide you will only check your email or social media twice per day, or only check your texts or voicemails every few hours. Pick a frequency that feels right to you. Bonus points if you leave your phone off or in airplane mode the rest of the time. *Tip: Maybe you can only do this on weekends, but even 1 day per week of reduced technology distractions can help you be more focused and present in life. 2. Meditate Meditating for as little as 15 minutes a day can help train your brain to focus. A lot of people are intimidated by meditation, but it doesn’t have to be hard. One easy beginner meditation goes like this: eliminate all distractions, find a comfortable chair to sit in, set your timer for 15 minutes, and close your eyes. Decide on your “focus point”: something neutral to bring your attention to, such as your breath, counting silently to yourself, or repeating a word silently to yourself (like “peace”). One of the mistakes beginners make is getting frustrated because they cannot maintain focus, and inevitably their thoughts wander. This is normal! The trick is to simply let these thoughts pass by, and gently bring your attention back to your focus point. This might happen 100 times over a 15 minute period, and that’s okay. You’re building the muscle of focus, and just like physical muscle building, you wouldn’t expect yourself to lift heavy weights when just starting out. 3. Breathe Deeply When we're stressed out we often unconsciously cut off our own flow of oxygen without knowing it. Next time you feel overwhelmed, notice your breathing. Are you breathing high and shallow into your chest? If so, take three deep belly breaths and observe how your internal state shifts. 4. Notice What’s Going on In Your Body So often when we’re trying to do too many things at once, we ignore signals from our body telling us to slow down. One tool we recommend is to do a quick body scan multiple times throughout the day: scan each part of your body from your head to your toes and notice any sensations. Tightness in your shoulders, tension in your jaw, or even hunger in your belly all signal a request from your body to do something different. This could be as simple as moving from sitting to standing, eating a protein rich snack, or taking a stretch break. In the long term, overriding or ignoring body signals (because of being too much in your head) can lead to chronic pain, muscle tension, or disease. The bottom line: multi-tasking may feel like the modern way of doing things, but this bad habit could be doing more harm than good. Choosing to slow down and bring more presence into your life can enhance your health, happiness, and productivity.

Science confirms it: too much chaotic noise in one’s environment can have a debilitating impact on the human nervous system. Unfortunately, on top of excess environmental noise, most of us are also dealing with excess mind noise on a daily basis--mental chatter that can increase stress while stifling creativity and joy. However, FSorb’s wellness experts say there is something creatives - like architects and designers - can do for a quieter mind and enhanced creative flow: get reign of your critical brain. Many people think criticism is necessary for problem solving and an important motivator for improvement. But scientists have long shown that being in a state of mental criticism—that internal voice that looks for what’s wrong in yourself, others, or your environment—is a form of mind noise that is especially detrimental to health and happiness. When active, the area of the brain responsible for monitoring and finding fault shuts down the area of the brain responsible for peak creativity, and vice versa. In other words, the inner critic cannot exist at the same time as peak creative flow. Self-criticism in particular harmful to wellbeing, and had been shown to contribute to relational conflict, depression, anxiety, negative self-image, substance abuse, and a decrease in motivation and productivity. The truth is at some point we all find things that frustrate, annoy or even repulse us, whether it’s something about ourselves, others, or life in general. Is it truly possible to “shut off” the fault-finding brain and simply ignore all there is to criticize out there (or over here)? Before you fall into the trap of criticizing yourself for being critical, give your critical brain a different thing to search for—that which you appreciate. Switching into appreciation mode has multiple positive benefits. From a health standpoint, appreciation practices reduce stress and help keep people healthy. One study showed that writing about gratitude for 10 weeks, as opposed to writing about daily complaints, resulted in greater optimism, more motivation to exercise, and fewer visits to physicians. When it comes to the workplace, 80% of people are willing to work harder for an appreciative boss, and 70% said they wish their boss thanked them more. Appreciation and gratitude have been shown to have striking impacts on brain function, increasing serotonin production (similar to the impact of antidepressant drugs), stimulating the hypothalamus (which regulates things like sleep and metabolism) and increasing dopamine, which encourages your brain to seek out more of the same trigger. In short, appreciation is a mood-boosting, weight and sleep regulating habit that’s addictive. But unlike other addictions, this one is actually good for you! One common appreciation-mastering tool is called a gratitude practice. Every night or morning, commit to setting aside 15 minutes to write a list of things you appreciate about your day, yourself, others, or your life on the whole. Other ways to practice appreciation: ~Write someone a thank you note ~Tell a friend or coworker something you appreciate about them ~Sit in a quiet place and think about something that went well At FSorb, we like to appreciate well designed acoustic environments. Whether it's a room designed with acoustic solutions, or a peaceful spot out in nature, we love the way quiet spaces boost our sense of health and creative flow. What are some things that you appreciate? Whatever your favorite ways are to practice the art of appreciation, implementing them consistently can have a powerful impact on your health and wellbeing.

Florida Distributors: Sales Reps: L&W Supply Hialeah ​6969 West 20th Ave Hialeah, FL 33014 305-821-8000 305-821-7129 Jeff Stoneback JS Specialty Products, Inc. 803 Mills Estate Place Chuluota, FL 32766 (Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville) JLstoneback@gmail.com 312-446-9924 L&W Supply Orlando ​3018 Shader Rd Orlando, FL 32808 407-521-7330 407-521-7515 L&W Supply Jacksonville 2919 Dawn Rd, Jacksonville, FL 32207 904-731-2290 904-737-6524 L&W Supply Port St Lucie 1771 SW Biltmore St Port St Lucie, FL 34984 772-871-6796 772-871-6083 L&W Supply Fort Myers ​2912 Warehouse Rd Fort Myers, FL 33916 239-332-3669 239-332-2078 L&W Supply Punta Gorda 250 Carmalita St Punta Gorda, FL 33950 941-639-2116 941-639-6653 L&W Supply Tampa ​2817 N 36th St Tampa, FL 33605 813-247-5402 813-247-4851 L&W Supply Englewood 3045 South McCall Rd Englewood, FL 34224 941-474-8185 941-475-8697 L&W Supply Auburndale ​408 Old Dixie Hwy Auburndale, FL 33823 863-965-3602 863-967-0746 L&W Supply Boca Raton ​21195 Boca Rio Rd Boca Raton, FL 33433 561-479-2200 561-479-0347 L&W Supply Tallahassee 4260 Aviation Ave Tallahassee, FL 32310 850-656-9414 850-656-6731 L&W Supply Ocala 1435 SW 15th Ave Ocala, FL 34471 352-629-1144 352-629-4042 L&W Supply Bradenton ​2510 Manatee Ave E Bradenton, FL 34208 941-714-0933 941-744-9683 ​

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