Shownotes:
Jump into the magical world of creativity and mindfulness with the incredible Erika Sandstrom. Join us as we explore the power of gratitude as a "magic potion" for a happy life and learn how simple yet profound practices can transform your daily routine. Discover the secrets of creating your very own "breathing bubbles" and find out how they can bring a sense of peace and presence to your day. Plus, stay tuned for a sneak peek into Erika's upcoming book, where kindness, empathy, and creativity collide in the most heartwarming way. Tune in and let's cultivate our best life together! 🌟✨
About Our Guest:
Erika is a Digital Learning Coach and Digital Media Teacher in 32nd year as an educator currently specializing in Green Screen and creative video production. Dubbed “Green Screen Gal”, Erika shares her creative media and mindfulness passions as a featured speaker at conferences, provides district PD, hosts online webinars, serves as a Canvassador for Canva, and co-hosted Week of AI and Genially EDFest. Erika also created the Green Screen Summit and was featured on the cover of the of Ed Tech K12 Magazine and named one of TOP 30 IT Inlfuencers to follow. Her book “Cultivating Compassion Through Creativity” is out in 2024!
TUTORIAL ➡️ bit.ly/flipbubble
Website: GreenScreenGal.com
Twitter: @greenscreengal
Instagram: @greenscreengal44
About Lainie:
Lainie Rowell is a bestselling author, award-winning educator, and TEDx speaker. She is dedicated to human flourishing, focusing on community building, social-emotional learning, and honoring what makes each of us unique and dynamic through learner-driven design. She earned her degree in psychology and went on to earn both a post-graduate credential and a master's degree in education. An international keynote speaker, Lainie has presented in 41 states as well as in dozens of countries across 4 continents. As a consultant, Lainie’s client list ranges from Fortune 100 companies like Apple and Google to school districts and independent schools. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell.
Website - LainieRowell.com
Twitter - @LainieRowell
Instagram - @LainieRowell
Evolving with Gratitude, the book is available here! And now, Bold Gratitude: The Journal Designed for You and by You is available too!
Both Evolving with Gratitude & Bold Gratitude have generous bulk pricing for purchasing 10+ copies delivered to the same location.🙌
Just fill out the forms linked above and someone will get back to you ASAP!
Transcript:
Lainie Rowell: [00:00:00] Welcome to the pod, friends. I have with me someone who I have been waiting and waiting to have on the podcast. The stars finally aligned and I get to have Erika Sandstrom here with us. Welcome, Erika.
Erika Sandstrom: Thank you so much. I just love you. I love your work and all of this gratitude going out to the world because of you.
So huge fan. I'm fangirling.
Lainie Rowell: I'm fangirling. Alright, Erika, I'm going to do a quick introduction and then I want you to jump in. Erika Sandstrom is a digital learning coach, digital media teacher, Friends, if you were looking at her right now, you would not believe this. She's been in education 32 years.
She looks fresh out of the teacher prep program. This is a glowing fresh face. If you're not familiar with her name, you might be familiar with her as the green screen gal, because that is how I came to know you. I did see your actual name, but that's such a catchy nickname. How do you not catch on to that, right? So.
Erika Sandstrom: Yeah. Well, I was dubbed that by a digital learning coach right before COVID because I was just obsessed with the green screen and creative media, but it is true. People do know me as green screen gal. They don't know Erika. It's really funny.
I mean, so I just go with it, you know, whatever, but it, it has stuck.
Lainie Rowell: I think it's worth sticking and Erika, you just mentioned creative media is what a lot of people know you for. They might know you for mindfulness. Obviously the green screen gal comes from your work with green screens.
And you also have an upcoming book, which I'm excited. I'm hoping you'll tell us a little bit more about that. But first, just, you know, what else do people need to know about you?
Erika Sandstrom: Oh, goodness. You know I think what I am known for is the mindfulness being weaved into the green screen and video production, but I guess right now I really want folks to know more about these breathing bubbles that I'm creating and I can share that at the end.
Lainie Rowell: We're going to make plenty of time for that. I'm just So impressed with what you do, and I don't think I'm going to explain it well, but yes, people do know you for the mindfulness, for the creative media, the way that you have brought the two together is so beautiful, so engaging, so creative, and I just love it, and I really do want to get to all that you're doing, and the type A personality in me is like, make sure to ask her the first question or I might not get to it. So I'm going to...
Erika Sandstrom: Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? I'm just sitting here listening to you going, I'm going to call you every day because I really need to hear that, you know?
Lainie Rowell: Affirmations from Lainie every day. You've got it.
Erika Sandstrom: I love it.
Lainie Rowell: All right. So my friends, let's kick us off with what does gratitude mean to you?
Erika Sandstrom: How much time do you have? I truly believe in my heart and soul that gratitude is a magic potion and a magnet to a happy and fulfilling life.
It really is the key to, to everything and I'll explain why I believe that, but it's just, it's a science, it's a practice, it's powerful, and there's so much more that people don't even realize, I think, and I'm a yoga instructor many, many years now, and so a lot of that, the energy talk I'm going to bring up is from that and the experiences I've had in my own life.
Gratitude has literally changed my life, so. It is a magnet. Do you want me to keep going?
Lainie Rowell: I do. The floor is yours and I love that magic potion and a magnet. I'm all ears. I'm leaning in. I'm ready. Go.
Erika Sandstrom: Okay. Saddle up. Here we go. Well for me, I think a lot of it started with Oprah Winfrey.
You know, she's like the queen of gratitude and Deepak and us as humans, we're always in this state of, I'll be happy when, dot, dot, dot. And I'm guilty of that. We're all guilty of that. And when you catch yourself in that, that's when you've got to remind yourself to practice gratitude.
But the way Oprah explains it is so Beautiful. You can just Google Oprah gratitude and she's wearing a red dress. It's the best video. And she talks about what gratitude truly is. And there are three types of gratitude. Usually when you ask someone, what are you grateful for?
They say, Oh, my family, my friends, my home, my clothes. And those things are deep gratitudes. That we have all the time. And then there's past happenings, but the most important ones are the present happenings. And what I mean by that is that, you know, Oprah in her, in her video, so funny, she's like, I keep my gratitude journal every day.
And I write five things at the end of the day that there's power in the words, there's power in writing them. Personally, I use an app because I love my technology. And she'll say that, you know, there's certain days that you just can't stop talking and there's other days it's like, okay, I just saw a squirrel.
Great. That was cute. It might not be anything else today. You know, I had a good cup of coffee. So Oprah explains, and I love your nodding because you know all this that gratitude is a practice throughout the day. If you focus on what you don't have, you'll never, ever, ever, ever have enough.
And if you focus on what you do have more will come.
Lainie Rowell: So, I'm nodding because I know that Oprah video, I almost have it memorized and . It's so, so I believe that video was shot 2017. Oh, maybe even 2012. It was like a long time ago. It was old.
That video is old. And at the time of that video, she had already been journaling. Mm-hmm. for. Years and years. Yeah. And one of the things she says in that video that I found so profound is she says, I believe this is the most important thing I've done in my life. And I think when someone who has lived the life that Oprah Winfrey has lived, the trials, the tribulations, and the successes, If that's something that after all of these experiences, you can say that, that's something I need to pay attention to.
Erika Sandstrom: Absolutely. I say that too. I'm like, look at her house, folks. It's not just about that though. It's about, she's a true light worker. She's living her dream and she did not come from anything good. She came from some sad times. And I just have a lot of respect for her understanding how energy works.
And that's the part that's fun to prove to people is this isn't just, okay, I'm grateful and I'm just going to write it down and feel good about myself. No, this is science. You are changing your brain. You are changing your hormone levels. I mean, with middle school. It's great. I'm helping them balance their hormones by practicing gratitude.
It's that powerful. And I know, you know, this you know, energy flows where the mind goes and you know what she says in there? She says, Grace is a direct response to gratitude. The more grateful you are, the more grace steps into your life and mirrors your gratitude. And I know that once I started my gratitude journal, It's true.
My family, sometimes I drive them crazy because I'm always, you know, gratitude helps you look for solutions instead of worrying about the problem all the time. And sometimes they just want to vent. So I have learned that let people vent and then try to change the energy and help them be grateful for the, for the blessings.
So you have to be careful.
Lainie Rowell: Well you're very generous that you keep saying like, that I know these things. And to some extent I do, but hearing them through your lens, hearing it the way you're sharing it, is new to me and it's so special to me to get to hear how you see this in your life, in the lives of those around you.
From your, family to the, the kiddos that you get to work with. And that's why I think I keep staying in this topic. It's not just because it's deep and you could devote your whole life to it and never ever come to the end of it. It's also just seeing it through other people is really beautiful.
And I, I love that. It's always about like, what is it for you and what is it in your life?
Erika Sandstrom: And it's so interesting, especially when you talk about people internationally and how, you know, we say thank you here, but in other cultures, that's when it gets really fun.
I'm sure you you know, have interviewed people from other countries and it's different and it's different everywhere you go, how they practice gratitude. And I, I find it as fascinating as you do. Yeah,
Lainie Rowell: There's so many things that go into what forms our relationship with gratitude.
Erika Sandstrom: So many layers.
Lainie Rowell: I appreciate you bringing up the, the cultural aspect and that yes, in some places saying thank you would be considered an insult because it's like well, of course I'm going to do this. I'm a good person. You saying thank you implies this wouldn't be my natural reaction or my natural intention.
So it's, it is interesting but the culture is just one, one thing too. So there's so much that goes into it.
Erika Sandstrom: There's so much and my favorite part about it all is proving that energy is real and what we put out will come back to us. Good and bad. Ripples of energy. And, you know one of my favorite things I've ever read is that gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions.
And that's where I get into Abraham Hicks and I teach the kids about the energy scale of, you know, the highest vibrational energy is joy. You know, joy is so high up here and, and then the lowest is shame, guilt. and you know, Deep Depression and all the other emotions in between. And if anybody studies Abraham Hicks and the emotional scale, you, you can't jump from despair to joy.
You have to learn to go up the scale. You're only supposed to jump a couple things. So I told my kids, I'm like, okay, if you're really in despair right now, think of something that makes you really angry. Cause that's a higher vibration of what you're putting out. Anger is not always a bad thing. You get it out and it just depends on how you get it out, but gratitude can help you focus on what's going right and not what's going wrong because every day, most days something will go right.
And like I said, it could be, I saw a squirrel and it was cute. It was that kind of day.
Lainie Rowell: I love that you're bringing up. It is not about dismissing emotions that we would consider unpleasant. It's not about ignoring them or even necessarily trying to shift out of them at a rate that's not realistic. But we do want to have the full human experience.
This is something I always want to make sure people know that I'm not saying gratitude for happiness because we should only be happy. You know, we do want that. But you talking about this emotional regulation, where, Okay, I'm here, and I need to not be here for any longer. I've been here long enough.
Now I'm going to shift to anger. That's a better place for me to be right now, and I can get there.
Erika Sandstrom: This is all from personal experience, you know, I'm an A D H D woman.
Very proud of it. I think it's a gift, but, just, things I've gone through in my life. Like sometimes if you're crying, I just look in the mirror. 'cause an ugly cry always makes me laugh. Or you can just watch a cat gif or something, something that'll make you laugh.
So there's ways to get out of this despair faster, but gratitude is huge and another thing I tell my students how energy works is that. And I was guilty of this too. Be happy for others who have what you want or what you desire in life. You know, maybe for adults, someone who has children and you want that.
If you want to bring the energy into your life, be happy for them. Be truly happy for somebody having something you want and watch it come to you too. Otherwise you're blocking yourself. And the only way I can truly prove energy to people besides the energy scale is I do a trick with a battery.
I have the kids, this is so cool, it's more visual but I'll try to explain it. You have the kids stand with their arms down, I do this with adults too, where you're just relaxed and your feet are a little bit apart, your knees are not locked, you're just standing there and you take a deep breath and then I tell them to focus on their heart and think of something they love and they start to sway forward and then I do the opposite, think of something you hate and it could be sadly a person but it could also be like peas.
You know, I hate those things. And then you'll start to flow backwards. And then like, why am I moving? So then I give them a battery in their hands and I tell them they don't have to do anything. Just stand there. And when the battery, and this really works when the battery is facing with a positive, it pulls your body forward.
And when you flip the battery over, it goes back and , it's fascinating. And within this lesson, even if not everybody flows because some people won't let go or they'll lean lean on their leg the kids are, they buy in. They're like, Oh my gosh, she's right. This is, why did I, why did I sway? It freaks them out every time.
It's important for kids to understand whatever way you want to teach about energy that It's real and it affects us and it affects your body and that's where mindfulness comes in.
Lainie Rowell: Well, I do wanna get to, and I'm gonna give you latitude because I just wanna hear whatever you wanna share. And so feel free to talk about breathing bubbles.
Feel free to talk about any mindfulness practices, any gratitude practices. Girl, I'm giving you free reign.
Erika Sandstrom: Oh my god, you're so cute.
Lainie Rowell: Because 30 minutes goes fast, so I want to make sure we get in.
Erika Sandstrom: Okay. So things that I do in my classroom right now for gratitude and or even in my life personally, I use the Thankful app, but there's a lot of gratitude apps out there. And the reason I love this one. is maybe because I'm lazy, but you can put a picture. So I look through my pictures from the day.
It pings at me at 9 p. m. every night and I look for pictures. I put a picture in and then I just list as many things as I can think of. And there are days where it's a cup of coffee, squirrel, I made it to work on time and other days I can't stop. And it's great to look back on. It takes me 60 seconds to do this.
There's no reason not to. And I'm so glad that I kept doing it. But with my students, I teach them about gratitude for themselves and for others. It's not just thinking about yourself, it's thinking about others too and how you can help them. But we do an attendance form every morning.
I put gratitude on there, it's usually like in the morning, I always get, I had a great pop tart in the afternoon it's like, day's almost over. We make gratitude videos. WeVideo, Canva, all the, you know, Adobe Express. On the green screen, we do this thing at Thanksgiving with.
turkey feathers. The kids become feathers. They pop up behind a turkey with what they're grateful for and we do that every year and that's a fun project. One that we keep ongoing is called the ABCs of Gratitude. So whenever the kids think of something that starts with an A, it goes up on the list and we do it all year and it gets really funny.
Also with MISBA for Wakelet, we did a mindfulness series and I did a whole series on gratitude there. So that's a fun video to watch. Those are some of the things that I do for, for gratitude. And I truly believe that one way to help your day, especially with Abraham Hicks, and that is if you start off your day very low, you fight the whole day.
to be happy or to find joy in your day. And most of us do that. So I've tried this is a Gabby Bernstein thing. I love her. She's a good person to follow. Before your feet hit the floor every AM, name one thing in your mind or out loud that you're grateful for and one thing you're proud of yourself for before you even put your feet on the floor.
So you can start in a space of gratitude or at least try to, because gratitude makes sense of the past, it brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. That's a good quote by Melody Beattie.
Lainie Rowell: I love that Melody Beattie quote. That is actually the last quote I have in the Bold Gratitude Journal because I feel like it really encompasses this past, present, and future.
And of all those, I think present is the hardest. I've said that before.
Erika Sandstrom: Present is the hardest, but that's where you use mindfulness. Use your five senses and bring yourself back. And I do it all day long. But speaking of that, I was saying to you off, off the air that I feel like you sharing gratitude and this magic that people have right in their back pocket.
And I'm sharing breathing exercises and deep breathing. Those two things could literally save people across the world because they're both very easy to practice and they just keep you present.
What my students and I have created, it's called #MyBreathingBubble.
And we have figured out how to create a breathing bubble that is an inhale for three, hold for three, exhale for three, hold for three, one minute exercise where I've always watched the one in the calm app, it was just a pretty bubble. And I said, wouldn't it be cool if we could put something personal inside that bubble, like a picture of my cat or a vacation I went on or something that brings you joy or brings you peace.
A lot of kids will put a basketball for their bubble because they love basketball. And so just watching what the kids create is so cool. And having them create these bubbles, they're actually practicing the breathing and the timing. So I'm watching kids like slump in their chairs and realizing how much it works.
The breathing bubbles are powerful. We're learning how to do them in every program right now. The course is free and it will have the Canva bubble in it. Which I'm going to be presenting as well soon with Canva. And we have Keynote, DeWink, oh my gosh, Adobe Express. And they're all different. Flip, all of them. Genely. That one's an actual bubble. And I have a free course right now under bit.ly/mybreathingbubblecourse.
Lainie Rowell: So you are doing. So, so, so much in your classroom, obviously, with those around you, personally, professionally. So what's the book going to be? I want to hear a little bit about the book.
Erika Sandstrom: Oh, thanks for asking. It's called Cultivate Compassion Through Creativity. I don't have a tagline yet, but it is about greed screen and creative media, but in mindfulness, all being tied into one.
So basically it's all of my lessons, but it's also a book on mindfulness and shared stories from me and from others. It's a great way to cultivate lots of things because each chapter says, cultivate kindness through creativity. Cultivate empathy through creativity, cultivate equity through creativity, cultivate gratitude through creativity.
I'm very grateful for Amanda Fox for, for bringing me in now with teacher goals to create this book. So I'm thrilled.
Lainie Rowell: That's so exciting. 2024. Right?
Erika Sandstrom: Well, yes. 2024. You know, as soon as Erika gets her schedule in to keep writing. I've never written a book before, so this is, this is quite an experience.
Wow.
Lainie Rowell: It's going to be amazing and I cannot wait to read it. And I think it's so interesting. I think we're in this very interesting time and I have kids who they're both preteens at the moment and I'm very aware of how media can positively or negatively impact them. And so I love that you're putting so much of your energy into finding these ways to engage with what resonates with kids, which is the media and do it in such positive ways and not just consuming it, but actually creating it too. It's just so lovely.
Erika Sandstrom: Creating it. And they come from a space of teaching others about it. So that's, that's, what's really powerful is these kids are really practicing it.
And I always tell this story, but it's. We did a video once with, I have a mindful superhero club as well, it's all about the green screen of mindfulness. And we had the kids do one on put your brakes on that negative self talk. So they did this whole skit where this girl dropped her book.
She freaked out and they come around in their green capes, which are full of green screen, smiley faces and stuff in them. And, they tell her to put those brakes on that negative self talk and it's, it's a cute video, but the point is that I heard in the hallway by the lockers, kids saying that to each other that weren't even in my class.
Put your brakes on that negative self talk to their friends. And that's when your heart explodes. So that's, that's what made me really go forward with this because, you know, these fun things are really fun to make, but it's the lesson behind it and the building up to it of what kindness truly is.
And then, then we'll go jump in the word kindness and do our Zach King tricks and all that stuff. Yeah.
Lainie Rowell: I'm really glad that you pointed out that it's also teaching others because there's consuming it. There's creating it, and then there's actually helping others to create too, which is like the highest level of that, and that's just so powerful, and obviously it's having ripple effects when you're hearing, not even kids from your own class that are saying the things that you're teaching, that's That's like, that's a Gooseys moment, right?
Heart Explodes. I love it. I heard you say that. That's so, so good.
Erika Sandstrom: Yeah, it gave me Gooseys for sure. Oh my goodness. It does every day. The kids just blow your mind with, and they love the gratitude stuff too.
Lainie Rowell: Well, okay. This is where I always get bummed that it's a short podcast and I know you have so much more.
So I'm just going to give you a last chance for any tips that you want to share with folks before we get to your shout outs.
Erika Sandstrom: I just encourage people to start journaling. Just grab a journal, even if you do a gratitude app. And just try it. You can even, you can even put pictures. It doesn't matter. And, and the thing about gratitude is it, it even works when you don't share it.
You know, it changes your brain chemistry. It's amazing. So try it as a practice throughout the day. What just happened today?
Lainie Rowell: And I really appreciate, I try to give this permission to myself and to others, of course, too, and I hear you giving it too, is that I think sometimes when people hear gratitude journaling, they think of very traditional paper to pen, but what I try and advocate for, and I hear you advocating for it too, is It can be photo, video, audio.
It could be a drawing. It could be whatever you want it to be. Traditional, using media, and newer tools. It's really just about getting those ideas in a concrete form. So then you really do, you know, one of my favorite words, savor it. And so...
Erika Sandstrom: I love that. I love that.
Lainie Rowell: You gotta savor the gratitude.
It's not redundant. You do savor the gratitude.
Erika Sandstrom: True. And, and honestly, the only way to change your brain and to change your thought process is to do something like this. And it's so easy. Like 60 seconds, but it's fun too. Cause then, then you start your day looking for things. Sometimes you're like, Oh, I'm going to write that down tonight.
It's really been great for me and I just handle things so much better in my life because. I literally have changed the way I look at the world. That sounds really deep, but...
Lainie Rowell: People get it because when you know, you know, I think that's, I think that's how it is. So I.
Really know there's so much more that there is to catch up with you. We're going to share your socials and how to get in touch with you in just a minute. But first, let's get to your shout out.
Erika Sandstrom: Oh gosh, of course I have too many. Can I rattle off? Amanda Fox, I mentioned. Barbara Bray. She's powerful. I'm in her new book and she's always supportive of, she's telling my whole story.
I love her. Taisha Rowe from EdTech Magazine. She put me on the cover of EdTech for the breathing bubbles and everything else. And I just love her. And she's just a wonderful human being. Cat Couchy for the Rise EDU Magazine. That girl is doing so much. And I love being a Canvassator, Barbara Roy, and the ladies from DeWink, I'll stop there.
Melinda and Karen have gone above and beyond to help me in my personal life and my professional life, and I just cannot be more grateful for them. And for you, Miss Lainie Rowell, for sharing the beautiful, beautiful gift of gratitude.
Lainie Rowell: You are so kind, my friend. And we have so many friends in common. I want to add , not to discount any of the other names that you dropped, but I do want to give a shout out to Barbara Bray.
She has been a inspiration in my life as well, and known her for many, many years. Yeah. actually got the chance to listen to you on her podcast. And so if people haven't had a chance to listen to that episode, they should go check that out because both Barbara and Erika are tremendous. And so you should check them out.
Erika Sandstrom: Oh, thank you so much. I just love her. She's awesome.
Lainie Rowell: All right, my friend, how can they catch you online? What's the best way to reach you?
Erika Sandstrom: Honestly, if you Google green screen gal, you'll probably find all my socials, but @greenscreengal and on Twitter or X, I can't say it or #greenscreengal44 on Instagram.
I'm on TikTok now. I'm trying all that. And GreenScreenGal.Com. I haven't run it yet this year, but I run the Green Screen Summit with 30 presenters. It's called Not Just a Green Screen Summit. And yeah, I think that's the best way to find me.
Lainie Rowell: All right, friends. So you know how to find Erika. AKA GreenScreenGal.
She's amazing. A great, great person. Connect with her because she's awesome. And with that, I'm going to say, Erika, thank you for your time and thank you all for listening.
Erika Sandstrom: Thank you. Namaste, girl.
Lainie Rowell: Namaste.