The Resilient Hacker: Growth Mindset, Health Hacks & Powerful Help to Navigate Personal Challenges

I'm good afternoon everybody welcome to be science Las Vegas proving ground our next talk is called the resilient hacker growth mindset health hacks and powerful help to navigate personal challenges our speaker is serenity smile a couple of announcements before we get started we'd like to thank our sponsors especially our inner circle sponsors critical stack and Valley mail and stellar sponsors silence Microsoft and Robin Hood it's a support of the sponsors along with the other sponsors I didn't mention and our donors and volunteers that make besides possible so thank you these talks are being streamed live as the courtesy to our speakers and to the audience we ask that you check to make sure your cell

phones are set to silent at the end if you have a question we'll just just raise your hand we'll take one question at a time and we'll have a serenity repeat the question back so that our YouTube audience can hear the question and with that said let's get started please welcome serenity smile Thanks all right so I have a question for you guys well as you know my name is serenity and I'm really glad to be here feel really honored this is my very first time speaking ever so thank you everybody for coming so I have a question for you guys how many of you have ever felt stressed or overwhelmed alright that's everybody in the room

great me too okay that's what and so guess what I'm here to help my goal is here to offer some tools based on my own life experience I've been really passionate about the subject for a long time so okay I'm having a technical difficulty of moving this thing okay so we did that so anyway Who am I well I'm relatively new to cybersecurity I was really fortunate enough to earn us an scholarship and so they thought that I had an aptitude for cyber security so I earned this is a example of a growth mindset I never thought that I was good at maths or programming or cybersecurity you know it never occurred to me I'm actually an

English major and so you know I actually only became interested in technology later in life when I had my son and he became actually interested in computer programming and robotics and Lego NXT and so because of him I thought you know if he can do it I can do it maybe so anyway that led to studying a lot of different things like web development I basically started applying for scholarships and studying whatever I could get a scholarship for and found that I could do it you know so I got the Sandt scholarship recently completed that and did this three certifications in six months which is working full-time and volunteering and having a family so that's an example of what I'm going to

talk about this growth mindset that even if you don't think you can do something actually I I think that all of you have applied this in your life because you're all in cybersecurity I know the amount of work that it takes some a dedication it takes to apply yourself to learning tech you know a technical topic I mean it's it's not like reading a novel ok we're watching TV it takes some dedication and knowledge but before that in a past life I actually was earned I felt so strongly about learning yoga and meditation and stress management that I dedicated a lot of time to learning and I actually still study and practice yoga and meditation every day and I really

try to apply it to all facets of my life and I've found that this is a major thing that's helped me say get these certifications and be able to study and be able to stay sane even though it sometimes felt very overwhelming so anyway I just that's a little bit about me so why are we talking about this well you know I did a lot of I'm very I tend to do a lot of research about things that I'm interested in so cyber security is something I'm really passionate really interested in and so you know being new to the industry I started researching it you know do I really want to work in this field what's it like and

I found that you know especially that I have this great interest in health and wellness I found a lot of current research is talking about I found past RSA talks white papers different studies we're talking about how in cybersecurity you know they're it's a very challenging industry to work in apparently we struggle to you know we there's issues with possible long hours and because there is a lack of supply you know and cybersecurity and we might face possible long hours under staffing and sometimes lack of support by management who don't understand the importance of security and we there's also that struggle you know that I so keep up with attacks and constantly changing technology and it's

a landscape with pretty big consequences so that's just so anyway I was reading all this research and I actually frankly was feeling a little bit depressed about it but I thought you know what I maybe I can offer something to help because I have had all this extensive training and yoga and stress management and meditations so maybe I can just offer some tools so anyway just a brief thing how does stress affect us why is this important well as you probably know stress is the leading probably it's been called the leading cause of illness I mean it just leads it's contributing factor to a lot of diseases chronic stress can lead to burnout depression or

even suicide in extreme cases you know as a contributing factor and stress makes cortisol and excess cortisol has a very adverse effect on our bodies so

so what what are some solutions that we can apply while I talked about growth mindset and so I I really believe that having a growth mindset is I've discovered this throughout my life you know having a fixed mindset means feeling like a victim and I had a very you know I had a pretty difficult childhood so I kind of understand that that feeling of victim you know victimhood Ness and you know the opposite of that is understanding that you can develop your abilities and your talents and your intelligence and I'm telling you this because you can actually develop tools to help yourself because I'm not talking about you know that's a different issue to fix the

systemic problems I'm just talk I'm talking about things that you can do to contribute you know to your own wellness like how do you how can you take things into your own hands you know that's what I'm trying to talk about so what so the goal here is develop a personal to develop a personal resiliency plan so what is resilience exactly like what are we trying to do well the goal is to be able to bounce back and go with the flow you know when we're challenged by life and you know we can have we these tools that you know I'm going to present you so basically I'm going to present you with a tool set

okay and it's like when you get one of those multi-tool sets well you don't end up using all of them you try them all out and you see which ones to keep right like especially if you're going on a trip and you can't take all the tools with you but you can try them and then like a lock-picking set you know you figure out okay what's the appropriate tool to use in this moment which ones are the most you know help me the most so I just want you to know that you do have a choice in how you react and respond and a lot of just tools the thing is like it gives you a

buffer between something that happens to you you know an event and then like what do you you know instead of a mat kind of like being really reactive about it like have you ever for example like I know I've done this like you know if you're angry and you just like say something very like sarcastic or you know kind of insulting and then that kind of that doesn't go over well but you know if if you practice a meditation or yoga every day and you kind of become more calm and you're in a more relaxed space you can kind of step back and say or you know breathe and think okay well what did that person really mean when they said

that I mean were they really talking about me or were they having a bad day or maybe they didn't even realize that what they said might may have been insulting or you know so I have this picture of a lotus flower here just because I want to the lotus flower has been inspiring to many cultures and religions you know such as Hinduism or Buddhism and the reason is that you know lotus flowers actually grow in ponds which you know ponds are bodies of stagnant waters so the mud on the bottom of the pond is pretty stinky you know and so lotus flowers grow out of this mud and it's this beautiful beautiful very useful medicinal flower which is

you know gorgeous and plus not only that but the leaves are incredible their original inspiration for Teflon I mean if you see there's whenever water lands on a lotus leaf it just rolls off so just like that you know if we use these tools hopefully we can just have adversity just roll off us not only that but you know growing out of the pot the mud of the pond which is adversity it just a beautiful thing grows so I really believe that actually like all the adversity in your life if you think about it it can be your advantage I mean it's like shifting your mindset you know because if you think about it all the

things that have happened to you and everything that you've been through gives you experience and it can like I know that everything that I've been there makes me more compassionate for other people so it kind of helps you grow as a person and sometimes we don't really know why things happen to us but but you know later if you look back on it you often say okay that was good that I was fired because actually I was able to do something else all right so what are some health hacks that we can do we can get this is very powerful if you get outside you'll find that you'll get inspired you know I really encourage you to

disconnect once in a while I know that I've personally have spent days you know trying to study or figure out a programming problem or something but if you can step away you know if you notice this is part of mindfulness how does it feel like when you're you've been inside all day like when I've been inside all day especially in a room without windows I feel kind of weird at the end of the day you know sometimes it's hard for me to go sleep but if I just take a break like if you just take a break you know oh well also sitting is the new smoking if you just take a break you know every

twenty minutes thirty minutes go for a quick walk take a nap if you feel tired you know that'll really recharge your creativity and inspire you you know you'll actually by taking time away you'll actually study better you'll you'll do more creative problem-solving and you know you'll you'll get the rest that you need to sort of give you a different perspective also longer term if remember to take vacations because that's actually a you know helps you recharge - so physical exercise of course doing outside is optimal because it's like you're getting a two and one you know flushes out the stress hormones being outside in nature actually has been shown to make you smarter and calmer people have written whole books

about this we're kind of just I mean introducing things but if you're really interested in this I want to encourage you you can contact me at the end I'll have my contact information and I can provide you with more resources and point you toward more resources so nutrition I just want to say that the brain is really dependent on nutrients and phytochemicals plant compounds that are only found in plants and vegetables you can't really just swallow a pill and get the same effect you know by taking vitamins and there are recent studies in there's actually a book called fast food genocide by a doctor dr. joel Fuhrman who I really admire because he does have

a lot of scientific research just the fast-food is a major causative factor for depression he also mentions their studies that sugar contributes to anxiety so even though you know the nach I think like the thing is when I feel stressed I might feel like eating ice cream or you know cake or something and I do love to bake I've found that I've tried to substitute that you know with eating fruit instead and that's actually been very helpful to me I also I also follow a plant-based diet and I've done that for many years and I've really feel that that contributes to my having a lot of energy and better health so you know just if you consume whole natural foods

and try to avoid things you know with ingredients you can't pronounce that it really does make a difference but it's up to you to experiment and see for yourself so you know just try to eat for nutrition so dr. joel Fuhrman coined the term nutria carrion and he works with consultant with Whole Foods on that that's just basically the concept of you know you don't have to be a vegan or vegetarian just try to eat more nutrient-dense foods like make every Tyler account you know try to avoid sugar processed foods with ingredients you can't pronounce and just you can just make take baby steps you know just make little substitutions I try to eat fruit whenever you feel like eating

sweets he actually recommends five fruits a day so anyway other powerful help from the past well people have been doing yoga and meditation for thousands of years but only now that we have modern scientific equipment like MRIs and machines that you know brain scans and things that can study what's happening in the brain we know now that meditation actually shrinks the amygdala that's the part of the brain that controls anxiety and fear so meditation helps to make you feel less anxious and fearful lowers cortisol the stress hormone that we talked about it's so detrimental to the body and actually the opposite of that it triggers more activity in this left prefrontal cortex which helps you which is what you know

it's triggered when you feel happy and calm so that's pretty you know that they actually now scientific research is proving what people have actually experienced for thousands of years so it's actually also recommended you know by now as for people that are depressed to help them instead of antidepressant drugs because it provides you know pretty much it provides the same results as antidepressant drugs but without the side effects and also it's you know it's free so all the tools that I'm presenting to you are free other interesting things are you'll age more slowly it's been a UCLA study show that in as little as 12 minutes a day for eight weeks that you know it can repair

your DNA and help you age more slowly protects your immune system may help lower blood pressure and basically you can think more clearly make better decisions it helps with chronic pain and you can sleep better so you know mindfulness it's just maintaining like whenever you're doing anything like eating walking talking to somebody just having a moment by moment where nasai you're feeling you know what's happening around you that's kind of situational awareness and yoga ok meditation is actually a branch of yoga but when I'm saying ok here I'm actually talking about the physical postures that's hatha yoga that's called so anyway doing and I want to say that with meditation in yoga there are many different styles so it's

up to you to experiment with different styles if you have any questions about different styles I'm happy to answer them but I just want to encourage you to just try something you know if you don't like one class or one teacher or one book try something else you know yoga reduces stress of course makes you stronger and more flexible and there's this whole mind body spirit connection which is more familiar in the East than West so it's a whole like holistic thing like if your body feels comfortable that affects your mind you know to make your mind feel more calm and that helps your spirit you know feel more happier so lastly so I think

so encourage you to laugh you know and spend time in good company we have this new stand-up comedy hacker you know stand-up comedy happening I think it just passed today but there's another one tomorrow I believe around four to five and try to connect with other people because it's also been shown to you know it really helps when you actually connect with people in person so if you like let's do a quick breathing exercise I'll teach you how to deep breathe which is something that's not only preventative that if you practice this over time it'll become more and more natural to you but you can also use it as an emergency thing in the moment like if somebody says something

if you get some alarming news you know or you feel really stressed or angry you can also practice this so if you like just put your hand on your tummy right now or if you don't have to if you don't want to and you can close your eyes or not that's optional but the idea is okay just exhale okay and when you exhale you're squeezing the air out of your tummy so your tummy's contracting okay that's squeezing the air out of your lower lungs and your upper lungs and then you can hold it for a second and then just breathe into your expand your tummy you know so you're filling your lower lungs with air and your upper

chest and then just hold for a moment then you can either exhale through your nose or through your mouth okay and now just just notice if listen to what's going on around us you know you can hear the noises from outside just notice like how you feel if you feel differently so we just did a very short breathing exercise which is very powerful because that's interrupting that stress fight-or-flight response so you know that actually scientists know that when you feel that fight flight response the it's it's like from primitive times you you basically you can't think straight and so that's why it's very helpful to do this deep breathing like if you have job interview or you know a presentation

I think that's which can be terrifying so I just smell some want to say that with mindfulness okay try to I personally try to control the negativity in my life like I just be if so you're being mindful right now right but mindfulness also means you expand your awareness to what you're putting into your body that means like not only what you're reading or what you're hearing people around you as well you know how do other people make you feel if you are around people that are complaining all the time you're not angry all the time or you're listening to you know violet watching violent movies just just like see how that makes you feel as opposed

to reading something personally inspiring to you and that can be different for different people like I personally find like stories of how people overcome adversity sometimes entrepreneurs that become really successful like rags to riches that can be very inspiring I'd like to know how other people that become overcome adversity that helps me kind of put in more positive things in my minds than negative things and then I have less to filter out you know it's like I'm fighting less so final thoughts it's very you know this community is very important if you look around you you know just remember that a friend a stranger is just a friend that you haven't met yet we have many excellent

people here and we need to I believe we need to support each other in the cybersecurity community because we are all facing different you know challenges and we're all in this together and I encourage you to experiment on yourself I mean I always consider myself a human getting my own guinea pig and so that's why I've been doing for years and years I've been experimenting with different yoga styles you know meditation styles and different tools and so what I'm presenting to you are the things that have worked for me and hopefully you can go out and explore more and see what works for you so just you know to try to develop your awareness we talked about mindfulness

meditation and yoga those are very powerful tools and exercise and that can include you know that's any kind of exercise basically anything that's inspiring to you whether it's mountain biking running yoga walking fast you know Tai Chi there are many different things that you can try and so just I just really encourage you to experiment on yourself and to be kind to yourself you know not be so hard on yourself and be compassionate to yourself and other people every day I try to do random acts of kindness it's just something as simple as I call it trash or size just like pick up trash if you see it you know on your way to work I

mean it helps you feel better and then you don't have to walk past it too and it helps other people too and if you can do something like some kind of more extensive volunteering or mentoring other people that really helps you get you outside of yourself and helps you feel grateful for you know there are other people that may not be as fortunate of us and when you help other people you actually feel really great yourself so also so lastly I want you to be like a weed or bamboo you know bamboo in storms if it blows around and it bends but it basically it doesn't break and we can be like that too you know

adversity I believe can make us stronger and so every day you know we do face a lot of adversity but if you ever see a weed like growing in the sidewalk like I once saw a tomato plant growing behind a dumpster in back of a subway and it was amazing it had all this fruit and I thought you know what nobody is caring for it and it's still thriving it was pretty amazing so I believe every one of you is just like that all right any questions for me winning all right well I want to leave my contact information here if anybody would like more resources or has any questions feel free to contact me always and I'll be outside

if you also have any questions so thank you guys so much for coming today to my desktop