Intro/Outro: 00:30

This is the Happy Scientist Podcast. Each episode is designed to make you more focused, more productive, and more satisfied in the lab. You can find us online at bitesizebio.com/ happy scientist. Your hosts are Kenneth Vogt, founder of the executive coaching firm, Vera Claritas, and doctor Nick Oswald, PhD, bioscientist, and founder of Bite Size Bio.

Kenneth Vogt: 01:00

Welcome to a special episode of The Happy Scientist. Today, we're going to be interviewing author and scientist Tara Niles. And she's got an interesting story and some interesting activities going on right now. So I'm looking forward to talking to to Tara. So, first off, let me give a let me give the re the recorded version of Tara's background and history, and then she can add in whatever she would like to add on.

Kenneth Vogt: 01:28

So Tara Niles is a career long scientist, so don't don't forget that. This is gonna matter as we talk. She is passionate about mental and emotional well-being at work and is certified in applied positive psychology and as a meditation instructor instructor, that is. She launched her book last year, Mindfulness in Everyday Life, which hit number 1 best selling new release in business, health, and stress on Amazon. She strives to bring mindfulness out of the yoga studio and into everyday life.

Kenneth Vogt: 02:04

So to start off, let let me first ask you, Tara, is there anything you'd like to add to that bio?

Tara Nylese: 02:10

Sure. Yeah. And, for starters, thank you so much for for the opportunity to be here. Super exciting, and I love what you're doing. Happiness and science are 2 very important things and even better when they come together.

Tara Nylese: 02:24

So to add to that, I've been in electron microscopy my entire career. I completely love electron microscopy. And then more recently, about, about 12 or 13 years ago, I, started becoming avid in meditation and mindfulness. And again, really found that the combination of the 2 strengthens each other. And also more importantly, when you take the science of mindfulness or the science of meditation, you really see the improved benefit.

Tara Nylese: 02:52

And, I think that really, hits the right chord for a lot of people. You know, it's not something that's just out there. Well, now it's science backed and, that that gives a lot of people confidence. So I'm happy to talk the happy scientist perspective today.

Kenneth Vogt: 03:08

Okay. Well, the first the first thing that comes to mind for me, I I I love the connection between science and mindfulness, and I love the idea that a scientist got interested in this topic. But why? Why should we focus on happiness and well-being at work? What's what's the point of all that?

Tara Nylese: 03:29

Yeah. Great question. And, the reality is is happy people are just more present. They're when we're happy, we're more focused on the life around us, the world around us, what we're doing, what we're experiencing, how we're feeling and happiness leads us to be more engaged at work. And that's important because it gets you into the the flow.

Tara Nylese: 03:51

You know, when we love what we're doing, then we're doing it effortlessly and seamlessly and really bringing our best selves and effort to it. And, but why do we wanna be engaged at work? And, and that's because, the last few years, you may have heard of the term quiet quitting, and it's something that we started to see as we came out of the pandemic. And what it means is that people are present at work. Their bodies are present at work, but their minds are not there.

Tara Nylese: 04:19

They're not engaged in what they're doing at work. You know, when you hear the term quiet quitting, it means that your mind, escapes, escapes where your body is at work.

Kenneth Vogt: 04:29

Sure.

Tara Nylese: 04:30

And you, people who are in that lack of engagement mode are not having an internal motivation. They might have external motivation. Yeah. I have to, you know, get a paycheck. I've got to do this.

Tara Nylese: 04:43

But the internal motivation is not there when you, when you're not engaged in what you're doing, when you're not present in what you're doing and really routing back to to happiness. And so, one of the the studies that I saw, when I was writing my book was from Gallup Inc, and, they surveyed about 2,000,000 employees across more than 200 organizations, and they found just a wealth of information about the benefits of a highly engaged workforce. And so there there are some of them that are maybe obvious and some that are lesser obvious, but the benefits of highly engaged workforce go across the organization. So for example, you have 41% lower absenteeism in people who are highly engaged and 59% less turnover of employees in an organization. And that's really important for human resources.

Tara Nylese: 05:37

You know, your your talent turnover isn't there. It means that people are getting deeper in their job. They're not missing work because of some external factors. So really increasing that productivity. And that leads to, 17% higher productivity in organizations that have an highly engaged workforce.

Tara Nylese: 05:56

That's great for for factories and people producing items, and that means that there's more, stuff getting out there. They're they're producing what they're meant to do. And people who are delivering higher productivity are delivering more to the organization. That's that's great for, you know, for factories, like I mentioned. Then there's also an increase in customer evaluation or customer ranking of an organization.

Tara Nylese: 06:23

And there's a 10% higher customer happiness with a highly engaged workforce or company. And so that's good for sales service organizations where you're making your customers happier than you're thriving as an organization. But perhaps the most important aspect is the profitability. So really surprisingly and wonderfully, the benefits of a highly engaged workforce include a 17% greater profitability for the organization. And so everybody wins when you're working with better profitability.

Tara Nylese: 06:59

You know, the leaders, the leaders are happy. The shareholders are happy and, people are happier to be there because then the organization itself supports a stronger culture, has more perks, if you will, really leads to less stress. So engagement stems from being present at work and present is a form of happiness at work.

Kenneth Vogt: 07:23

Sure. So let's dial this into scientists. You mentioned factories. You mentioned customer service workers. But how would this apply to scientists?

Kenneth Vogt: 07:31

Why would they care about this?

Tara Nylese: 07:33

Yeah. Exactly. So scientists really need to have that, creativity, that spark of insight. Right? The the greatest scientific happenings happen when you have that moment of that, you know, that that spark of ingenuity.

Tara Nylese: 07:51

And so when you're happy and you're more present, you're actually lowering the the brain chatter. You know? You don't have all of these distractions. You don't have all these noise, these external things firing into your brain, you know, distracting you from, from, from the real thinking. And so as a scientist, you really wanna list listen to those whispers of insights, and then you want to gain those moments from those small whispers of insights in our mind.

Tara Nylese: 08:23

And the best way of doing that is by reducing the mental chatter and letting those whispers come through loud and clear.

Kenneth Vogt: 08:30

Alright. So on that that topic of of our mental life, Yeah. Let's apply that to mental and emotional health. For a lot of folks, that's like, well, you know, I I'd like to get to that, but I I have more important things to do. But, but, it it, you know, may not be compared to, like, physical health or exercising or eating well, but how do you relate mental health and to physical health, which is certainly gonna impact one's job?

Tara Nylese: 09:02

Yeah. No. That's a that's an excellent point. Truly, there is, the intertwining of mental and physical health together. So, there's tons of scientific evidence and a lot of what I'll talk about today is backed by science.

Tara Nylese: 09:17

Pretty much everything that I'll talk about is backed by science because I'm always gathering, scientific, papers and talks on these topics. So scientific evidence shows us that having a positive mental outlook helps us live longer and healthier lives. This is this is fantastic. You know, just having a better outlook helps us live longer and live healthier. And, I'll talk about something I read just last week from doctor Gary Small, who's a cognitive brain expert from the Hackensack Meridian, medical system.

Tara Nylese: 09:49

And he talked about how optimists have fewer emotional and physical difficulties. And, you know, when you when you think about optimism, you say, okay, kind of makes sense. They might have fewer emotional difficulties, but they also have fewer physical difficulties too. And this is like, wow, okay. Let's, let's explore this more.

Tara Nylese: 10:10

Optimists have more energy. Optimists are always looking for ways of making things happen and optimists have less physical pain. And, you know, you could start thinking about why, why that is. It's like, okay, okay, optimists are focused on solutions. You know, optimists are focused on what works, what doesn't work.

Tara Nylese: 10:29

And because as soon as you start getting onto the spiral of what doesn't work, you could really go on a downward spiral. And, you know, that's not productive for, for work productivity, but also for physical health too. Yeah. I'm not saying that optimism is being a pollyanna, like, oh, the world is great. Nothing is wrong.

Tara Nylese: 10:49

Optimism optimists approach challenges with a recognition that challenges exist. You know, there are difficulties there, but optimists, right. So most approach them like, okay, I'm I see this problem. I'm going to deal with it. I could find a solution and I'm gonna get it done.

Tara Nylese: 11:08

Whereas maybe the opposite mindset is less solutions focused.

Kenneth Vogt: 11:13

Yes. We've we've talked about optimism on the happy scientist several times, and you're you're spot on with what we've been saying. It's just practical. It it and it's funny. The average optimist, if you ask them, do you think you're a realist?

Kenneth Vogt: 11:34

They're like, maybe, maybe not. He has a pessimist. You bet I'm a realist. I'm absolutely real. That's and it's not true.

Kenneth Vogt: 11:43

Optimist is much more realistic than a pessimist.

Tara Nylese: 11:46

Right. Yeah. That's that's a great distinction and a great point. It is saying like, okay. We need to look at the whole world.

Tara Nylese: 11:52

We don't need to be just pulled in one direction or the other, but, you know, I often use the analogy if your house is on fire, the best thing to say is to start with is my house is on fire. And then what do I do from there? You know, and the optimist again, solutions oriented. Okay. Let's get everybody out of the house.

Tara Nylese: 12:12

Let's make sure everyone's safe. Let's call 911. Let's do it. Let's move. Let's go forward.

Tara Nylese: 12:17

Whereas with an opposite, less solutions focused mindset, you say, say, oh my god. The house is on fire. The house is on fire. And then you just dwell on the problem, and that's not

Kenneth Vogt: 12:25

gonna And all the possibilities of how it could go wrong. House is

Tara Nylese: 12:29

on fire.

Kenneth Vogt: 12:30

I'm gonna lose all my stuff. House is on fire. I'm gonna get hurt. House is on fire. Everybody's gonna die.

Kenneth Vogt: 12:35

And chances are some of that may not happen, but all of it is highly unlikely to happen. That is not the way to operate in life.

Tara Nylese: 12:44

Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. And what I also like about what, doctor Small said was that 10 minutes a day on daily meditation boosts cognitive abilities, and I completely love that.

Tara Nylese: 12:58

And so this is coming from a, cognitive brain expert. It's also supplementing what I read back in 2017 in Harvard Business Review. There was an article entitled 10 minutes a day on mindfulness suddenly change Changes Everything. And that was really for me the inspiration for my mindfulness program or my website, which is 10 minute mindfulness.com. And really, it's just that science and business focus of 10 minutes a day on mindfulness changes the way we make decisions, the way that we're increasing productivity.

Tara Nylese: 13:31

It gives us that buffer to be able to effectively deal with the the problems that come up.

Kenneth Vogt: 13:37

Yeah. And the notion that I'm so busy, I can't do this. 10 minutes? Really? You can't sacrifice 10 minutes of doomscrolling today?

Kenneth Vogt: 13:46

Really? Right. Come on. You could do this. So Yeah.

Kenneth Vogt: 13:51

This this air this area of interest may not be something that every scientist spends a lot of time in. They may not know what's going on in the wellness industry. So the trends there, what what do you what do you see these days about the wellness industry in general and specifically about mental wellness?

Tara Nylese: 14:11

Yeah. Great. Perfect. So back to a little bit of research. So, McKinsey and Company is a business reporting company, and they have a report on the future of wellness.

Tara Nylese: 14:23

It's a survey that shows consumers are taking greater control of their health. And this is this is great, and it shows, over time how things are changing. So, so they report that consumers are expecting companies to have science based solutions to be effective in the mental wellness space. So this is this is really great, reports that that any people aren't just blindly accepting, wellness services, but they're saying, okay. We need to have it proven to us now.

Tara Nylese: 14:57

We need to have it backed by science and expertise. And so, the report shows that the global wellness market is 1,800,000,000,000. That's trillion with a t, $1,000,000,000,000. And this is, you know, this is an amazing, market. It also that that number also includes things like your athletic wear, your apparel, your fancy name brand leggings, and and all this, your gadgets, your health trackers, and even supplements and all this.

Tara Nylese: 15:27

But one of the segments that's growing, and they they report that the meditation and mindfulness segment is now more recently, gaining consumer acceptance. And about half of the people surveyed said they wish they had more products and services related to meditation and mindfulness. So this is a great opportunity for companies to, to be able to meet that consumer need. So of that global market of 1,800,000,000,000, about 500,000,000,000, so half of a trillion is just in the US. And, 80% of consumers say that they consider wellness a top priority in their everyday life.

Tara Nylese: 16:08

So this is this is really encouraging, but I think the most important thing is because of the new segment growth of the meditation and mindfulness, trend, the global meditation market has about a 20% compound annual growth rate to 2030. So this is expected to have an explosive growth of products and services related to delivering mindfulness and meditation services to, to to people.

Kenneth Vogt: 16:36

Okay. So that's the business side of it. But what what does science have to say about happiness and mindfulness? What what are the journals saying out there? What are the medical and academic institutions saying about mindfulness?

Tara Nylese: 16:48

Yes. You're speaking my language. Thank you. So so there's just a complete wealth of scientific and medical, evidence across, prominent journals. And so, you you know whenever whenever I look up I dig up information from from NIH, the National Library of Medicine, the CDC Nature Magazine, even, and, there's another one, the American Institute of Stress.

Tara Nylese: 17:14

And so this is a tidbit that I love from from that journal, that publication. More than half of Americans are stressed during the day. Half of Americans are stressed during the day, but 94% of Americans are stressed at work. And about 60% of them are ready to quit their job over stress. And I'm going to that 60% ready to quit their job over stress.

Tara Nylese: 17:40

I definitely want to, while I'm quoting that from a journal, I wanna put that with a grain of salt. I don't think that means that people are actually going to quit their jobs over over the stress, but they're to the point where the stress is impacting their daily lives at work in sciences. And so even the CDC says that about 90% of diseases have some relation to stress. Stress weakens the immune system. And as scientists, you know, we understand that we get that, you know, we understand how the immune system works.

Tara Nylese: 18:13

We understand when our cellular functioning isn't functioning in the appropriate way, either because our blood vessels are constricted, our blood pressure is elevated because of the stress from the fight or flight response that might be chronically present in in our bodies, our elevated, heart rate. All of those things over time lead to chronic stress. And as scientists, I think, you know, we we get that pretty easily. And then you have the, you know, the relation to cardiovascular disease, cancer. And with a suppressed immune system, it puts us even more at risk for infectious diseases too.

Tara Nylese: 18:52

Right.

Kenneth Vogt: 18:53

Another I've always been surprised about something about about stress and our immune system. It seems like the moment I most need my immune system work well is when I'm under stress, and that's when it doesn't work very well.

Tara Nylese: 19:07

Right. Yes. Exactly. Because your your body focuses on on the the stressor. You know, if we think about the fight or flight response, our bodies are tuned to that to outrun a lion or maybe

Kenneth Vogt: 19:22

worry about feeling sick later.

Tara Nylese: 19:24

Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. You sort of put that put that on the side and immune system isn't gonna help you outrun a a lion or, know, if you step off a a curve and a crosswalk and there's a truck barreling down on you, like, that's when we need that fight or flight response, like quick reaction. You know?

Tara Nylese: 19:41

Yeah. And our immune system isn't important to us, when we're about to get hit by a truck. Right? So

Kenneth Vogt: 19:46

Yeah.

Tara Nylese: 19:46

That's the that helps in that situation. The important part is the stress management side of it. And again, there's so much science and prominent journals that show us that mindfulness meditation, stress reduction, stress management are all crucial keys to getting us out of these chronic stress disease states. I'd love to quote a couple, if if you'd like to hear some.

Kenneth Vogt: 20:15

How about it?

Tara Nylese: 20:17

All right. So, NIH, reports that work related stress is the leading workplace health problem, even more so than obesity. So like this is really wow. Like this is a really big thing. Work related stress is the leading workplace health problem.

Tara Nylese: 20:35

Like that is that's big. And the productivity losses facing us are $225,000,000,000 per year or almost $2,000 per employee. And that's the productivity that I mentioned before about, you know, absenteeism, employee turnover, just not being engaged in what you're doing. Your your output isn't there, and that's related to stress and the chronic stress that catches up with us over time. So that's the problem.

Tara Nylese: 21:07

So stress is the problem and well-being, mental and emotional health, happiness, mindfulness are all part of the solution. And so there was, a scientific publication in JAMA, a few year last year. And it said that in a randomized clinical trial, an 8 week mindfulness based stress reduction program was non inferior to a common anti anxiety medication and sort of in more lay people speak. What does that mean? It means practicing mindfulness over time is gonna be just as effective at controlling one's anxiety as a pill, except for, without all of the detrimental side effects, of a pill.

Tara Nylese: 21:57

So I, I appreciated that one from, you know, from this from the medical journal. And, again, as scientists loving, quoting all of these, you could you could just look up and see NIH works showing improved focus, concentration, better relationships, more, self awareness, emotional regulation, sleep, and so on, and the list goes on and on.

Kenneth Vogt: 22:21

Right. So speaking to the audience, at the top of of this conversation, I pointed out to you that that Tara Niles is a scientist. And since then, you didn't have to believe me. You've heard her just list off how a scientist would see this and the studies that she's looked at, and and it does bring to mind the question, these are studies that may be new to all of you. Why, Tara, did you get attracted to mindfulness and go looking for all this stuff?

Tara Nylese: 22:54

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for for asking the the personal question, and it's something that I I do feel strongly about. As I mentioned, I've been a scientist my whole career.

Tara Nylese: 23:06

I fell in love with electron microscopy when I was in my teens. I saw a, an image in my biology high school textbook, and I was like, wow, I have to do this. So I completely love that. And, you know, my passion was there. And then, when I rose through the ranks and made some good career, choices and had some great opportunities that I'm super grateful for.

Tara Nylese: 23:33

There's a lot of stress at work, a lot of lot of stuff to manage. And

Kenneth Vogt: 23:38

I don't think this is gonna be news to our audience.

Tara Nylese: 23:42

No. Yeah. We're we all it's there for for all of us. Balancing the demands of a home life, career life and family life are are all tough stuff. And for me, I was actually really proud of being a multitasker at one point in time.

Tara Nylese: 23:59

And I really was convinced that this was the best way to be. And maybe

Kenneth Vogt: 24:03

I'm going to send you a study on multitasking.

Tara Nylese: 24:08

I I believe you. Yes. I I would love to see the study to to add to my list of, evidence backed, that that it's not great. But at the time, I thought it was

Kenneth Vogt: 24:19

than not great. It's it fails across the

Tara Nylese: 24:23

board. Right. Yes. True. Better better said than I.

Tara Nylese: 24:27

Right. But at the time, I, like, I was proud of being a multitasker. Like I thought like, this is what I had to do. I was really tying in my self worth to what I was doing. I was equating, you know, the, the quality of my person to the stuff that I did and when I eventually came to realize I was lacking the depth, I, you know, it just wasn't there, for me.

Tara Nylese: 24:52

And so I one day I went to a, meditation class in a community library and, local library. And I was like, wow, this is really okay. This is there's, there's something here. And then I ended up exploring it more, got a great opportunity to see the Dalai Lama, which was amazing, and then traveled around the world and, got to experience other cultures where Buddhism was prominent. And it brought me to a group that I'm involved with now for now over 12 years, a Kadampa Meditation Center.

Tara Nylese: 25:27

They're based in the UK, but they're all over here in the US as as well. And I would go to the New York one, which was in Manhattan in New York City in Chelsea. And, you know, just a lot of professional people coming to this meditation center. They I would go to the Thursday evening class at 7 PM, and you have men from Wall Street in suits coming into meditation class. And it's like, okay.

Tara Nylese: 25:51

This is meditation for the real life. Like, for the real, you know, this is for, for what we deal with in our careers or professional life. And it really clicked with me. And I started feeling the effectiveness and that was the key. It was like, okay, like, this is not something that's touchy feely.

Tara Nylese: 26:09

This is not something that's out there. It actually works. I felt the the benefit of it. And for me, that was really scientific because as a scientist to experiments, you know, that's what we do. We say, if this works, you know, if you see the benefit of the effectiveness, then do more of that.

Tara Nylese: 26:28

If it doesn't work, then tweak it and maybe maybe it works better or differently. And once I really found that that worked, then I stuck with it. And, you know, I even remember going to retreats where we'd talk about, like, what we do for a living. And I remember once saying that I'm a scientist, and somebody said, wow. That's weird.

Kenneth Vogt: 26:49

Well, I was thinking about it from the other standpoint. You know, granted, you saw a variety of people that are professional and and successful at retreats and at classes. But when you went back to to your job, when when you went back to the lab, didn't those people think you were a little odd?

Tara Nylese: 27:07

Yeah. That was, you know, that was always a big one. I had a good friend that encouraged me to to keep up with it, which I forever appreciate, and for that, you know, that that support. But, yeah, you know, it wasn't something that I talked about a lot 10 years ago. You know, I would go to work and I would go to meditation class and, you know, really had this sort of, dichotomy of approach, between the lab and to my, outside hours.

Tara Nylese: 27:36

But when I traveled in, Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Buddhism is really a way of life there. So that started giving me a little bit more confidence that, okay, this might be weird in the US, but it's not weird in other places of of the world. And for the for the big one for me was, writing my book. I kept it to myself when I was writing it. And

Kenneth Vogt: 28:01

when I get to you're gonna have to let the world know about that.

Tara Nylese: 28:04

Exactly. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I I sure do.

Tara Nylese: 28:07

And, my manager was really supportive on that. And, she actually put me on the spot a little bit when she started announcing it to everybody, you know, sending emails and all this. And then that encouraged me, like, okay. I'm gonna post it up on LinkedIn. And, the community, the scientific community was super receptive to it.

Tara Nylese: 28:27

And it's it's that support that got me to the number one best selling release spot in business to help in stress, which I think is great because that is a it's a niche. It's mindfulness in a business stress category. But it shows like, okay. This you know, there's something there. And then I think even most, impactful to me was the amount of people who would, you know, post on social media, would post their pictures with my book.

Tara Nylese: 28:56

And even when Earl brought her copy of the book to the M and M show, the microscopy and microanalysis show, last year for me to sign. And that, you know, that really meant the world to me. It helped me get over the imposter syndrome. And now here I am talking about mindfulness as a scientist. Yeah.

Kenneth Vogt: 29:17

Well, you know, I've made no secret on the podcast that I'm not personally a scientist. So when you said you met somebody at an M and M show, and I'm thinking you went to a rap show and they brought your book.

Tara Nylese: 29:33

Yeah. Microscopy and microanalysis.

Kenneth Vogt: 29:36

There you go. Gotta love it. So how can how can others then benefit from mindfulness at work as a scientist, and how can they incorporate this in their daily lives?

Tara Nylese: 29:47

Yeah. I think this is this is probably the most crucial aspect. It's you know, I could talk about intellectually why it's important. I could cite scientific journals and reference, statistics, but really what's important is you find a routine that works for you. You find something that you enjoy.

Tara Nylese: 30:10

You understand that the benefits are there. I could tell you about the benefits. You know, being present helps us get in the flow, helps us be more engaged in our lives, be more engaged at work, have better teams, more creativity, more productivity, all important things. But what really matters is that you find a routine that works for you. And, this is for anybody listening.

Tara Nylese: 30:37

This is the time to get a pen and write this down because this is the big takeaway. You know, the really two important things are that you find a routine for you that you enjoy, that you like doing, you know, that's not a burden, that that you you enjoy. Like, okay. Yeah. This is this is good.

Tara Nylese: 30:56

You know, it might be a mindful walk and, you know, turning off your mind. It's not just walking. It's a mindful walk. It's saying I'm just focusing on my one foot right in front of the other, right. Left, right.

Tara Nylese: 31:09

Left. And, and really just clearing your mind and focusing on what you're doing. And then the second thing is to feel the effectiveness because it's there. And I've talked about it's there. Science shows us there, but you need to feel the effectiveness to really embody it, to convince yourself and to get a habit out of it.

Tara Nylese: 31:33

And so if you're not feeling the effectiveness, then tweak it, you know, do something a little bit different. And so with these, you know, with these two factors, find something that you enjoy doing and that you feel the effectiveness. You have a wealth of of, tools available to you. A tremendous tool chest in the meditation and mindfulness space now, and and growing, at every moment. But there are, guided meditation sessions, guided mindfulness sessions.

Tara Nylese: 32:06

In my book, my chapters are separated by topics. So I have mindfulness at work, mindfulness for teenagers, mindfulness for for seniors. And so I talk about the benefits and the background and the rationale behind it or I I write about it. And so you could read and understand intellectually about it, But then I also include a written mindfulness script that you could read to actually digest the action. So you could understand the action.

Tara Nylese: 32:37

And then it links to my site with the guided mindfulness sessions, the recorded sessions that you could listen to. So you could read to to learn. You can read the practice to understand, and then you could listen to actually practice and get it. And so that's syncing up the the brain and the body together to feel the effectiveness. But there's also small ways.

Tara Nylese: 32:59

I've got these mindfulness calendars, which have been super popular. Like, tens of thousands of people have, accessed my mindfulness calendar calendar in the last couple of months. And they're short daily tips on how to practice mindfulness. And, one of the, the gals who who uses them, she told me she prints them out, posts them on her fridge, and she encourages her children to read the daily tips and, take action on them. And she said her husband told her that, wow, this mindfulness stuff must really be working for you because I don't remember the last time that you yelled at the kids, and I don't remember the last time that you yelled at me.

Tara Nylese: 33:39

So, you know, if it's those daily tips, great. That can also be formal classes. They could be 1 on 1 coaching sessions, you know, just simply reading, but there's there's stuff out there to, to build your tool chest, to, again, create a routine that works for you that's enjoyable and that's effective.

Kenneth Vogt: 34:00

Right. Well, then you've got so many tools there. And I will say having having read your book, you know, mindfulness for everyday life, the structure of the book is really good. I mean, it's very clear. Every chapter, I know what I'm gonna find there.

Kenneth Vogt: 34:16

I know where I can find it. It's really straightforward. It's I I can see the scientist in you in how the book is structured. It's it's and yet it still flows. It's it's not it's not so uptight that you'd that that you can't enjoy reading it.

Kenneth Vogt: 34:35

And it's an easy well, I'm gonna say easy read. I don't wanna diminish it, but it's accessible to read. You you don't have to you don't have to have Tara's scientific mind to get this.

Tara Nylese: 34:48

Yeah. Right. Thank thank you. Thank you for saying that. And to me, it was important to organize it in such a manner because it has a place for everyone.

Tara Nylese: 34:58

It has a place for teenagers. It has a place for career professionals, busy moms, and, even for seniors. So if you're not a senior, don't read the senior chapter. If you're not a teenager, don't re read the teenager chapter or give it to your to your

Kenneth Vogt: 35:12

Secret. You can read it if you want to.

Tara Nylese: 35:14

Exactly. Right. Yes. Exactly. Because you do pick up tips from different perspective.

Tara Nylese: 35:18

But, yeah, that was important to me to show that it, yeah. It applies to everyone again, back to that sort of philosophy, bringing mindfulness out of the yoga studio and into everyday life for everybody.

Kenneth Vogt: 35:34

We're just thinking it. I may wanna do an episode on yoga sometime for the happy scientists. Be an interesting juxtaposition. Yeah.

Tara Nylese: 35:43

I would I would love to hear that.

Kenneth Vogt: 35:47

Well, if people wanted to to continue to follow your work, where would they go?

Tara Nylese: 35:52

Yeah. Great. Yeah. So, you can get my book, mindfulness in everyday life. I encourage you to, get it on Amazon, or you can also get it directly on my website, which is 10 minute mindfulness.com.

Tara Nylese: 36:05

That's t e n spelled out a 10 minute mindfulness. And, there's also a vast amount of resources on my website. There are the book guided sessions. So every session that's in the book also has an audio recording on the website, so you can just listen to that. I also have a section on the website called the sleep suite, and that's for people who have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, waking up in the middle of the night.

Tara Nylese: 36:34

And that one was really impactful for me because I have some people who that really has resonated with. And, I enjoyed hearing that that it helps, helps people. One person said they they can't listen to my voice now without thinking they they should be falling asleep.

Kenneth Vogt: 36:52

Oh, boy. Which I

Tara Nylese: 36:53

don't know if that's a good thing, but, and I'll tell you, even I even I listen to it sometime too if I wake up in the middle of the night, and, it is it is weird. My partner says it's weird, but, but I think I think it's okay, and it does put me to sleep. And so but I also, I've created guided sessions for, one woman recently was saying that she needs a little help with her motivation to get going, to get inspired during the day. So I have a guided audio session on motivation and, you know, getting your day started with some energy and dedication and focus. So, really, I can create any of these audios for anybody who has a specific need as well.

Tara Nylese: 37:33

So there's stuff out there, or there's even customizable options.

Kenneth Vogt: 37:38

Wow. Well, there's the full gamut. I I am so glad that my cohost here, doctor Nick Oswald from Bite Size Bio, put us to put the 2 of us together because, I I feel I feel we have a kindred spirit. So

Tara Nylese: 37:54

I do too.

Kenneth Vogt: 37:55

I wanna help scientists. Obviously, you wanna help scientists. It's great.

Tara Nylese: 37:59

Yes. Yes. I I certainly do. And, get over that imposter syndrome. You can be a scientist and a meditation practitioner, and you could even do it at work.

Kenneth Vogt: 38:11

Gotta love it. Alright. Well, is there anything you wanna you wanna cap this off with?

Tara Nylese: 38:18

Yeah. I guess, since I just mentioned, AtWork, I recently did a presentation at work for a women's empowerment group being that, it's women's history month. And I was really, really emboldened by the number of women who joined in, was was a tremendous attendance. And to me, that underscored that there are people who are embracing well-being at work. It's now it's acceptable.

Tara Nylese: 38:50

It's it's now being acknowledged as mainstream, and we need to focus on our well-being at work. And you can simply do these breathing exercises at your desk, and you can bring it into the workplace and practice with other people. You're, your mainstream if you're doing that now.

Kenneth Vogt: 39:11

There you go. Alright. Well, with that, I think we will call it a day. Once again, we've had with us Tara Niles, biologist, chemist, and mindfulness expert with us here today on the Happy Scientist, and be sure to check out Tara's book and her website, and and go as deep as you wanna go. So on that note, once again, we're so happy to have everyone with us.

Kenneth Vogt: 39:38

You can see more episodes from the happy scientist at the happy I'm sorry. Bitesizebio.com/thehappyscientist. And you will find lots of past episodes there. Many of them may speak to you. Some things that we talked about today, there's whole episodes on, say, the imposter syndrome, for instance, or about the multitasking method.

Kenneth Vogt: 39:59

There's a lot of possibilities. So with that note, thank you everyone for for listening in, and we'll see you next time on the Happy Science.

Tara Nylese: 40:09

Thank you.

Intro/Outro: 40:16

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