Hello and welcome to CMC Markets and this month's non-farm payrolls webinar on Friday the 6th of July. Before we get started I have to get the small matter of some revised risk warnings out of the way so we will do that bit of housekeeping now, been slightly amended since the change of regulations that took effect at the beginning of this month so just quickly make our way through those so that you can digest them and then we can get started on the order of business for the day which is obviously the US payrolls report now we have got a bit of a flavour of the payrolls report when the ADP June numbers were released yesterday they came in slightly below expectations were expecting a number in the region of 189,000 came in at 177,000 but to offset that the previous month's numbers were revised up so the net change on the two-month period was minus 1,000 so I don't think there was anything particularly to be concerned about with respect to the US labour market it still appears to be in fairly decent shape certainly US policy makers overnight didn't have any concerns apart from the fact that they were a little bit concerned that the US economy might be running a little bit hot as I lead up to the payrolls numbers I'll obviously be looking at the data we also have Canadian payrolls as well so I'll obviously have a look at them and look at the key numbers to expect there particularly in light of the fact that we have a Bank of Canada rate meeting on the 11th of July next week and I think a decent payrolls number on Canadian jobs would pretty much guarantee a rate rise from the Bank of Canada next week because over the course of the past few weeks Canadian jobs data has or Canadian economic data rather has been fairly positive and I think the Bank of Canada will be reluctant for that gap between US rates and Canadian rates to get too wide and the Bank of Canada hasn't raised rates this year whereas the Federal Reserve has raised rates twice so I think against that backdrop unless we get an absolutely diabolical Canadian jobs figure then I think the Bank of Canada could be minded to push rates up by 25 basis points when they meet next week on the 11th of July despite concerns about NAFTA and obviously the implementation of tariffs which Canada has put on Chinese Steel in response to the US tariffs on pretty much everybody else's steel and this is I think one of the one of the concerns it's likely to continue to linger over the course of the next few weeks the tariffs on US goods and Chinese goods have both taken effect China basically followed up the US measures pretty much soon after despite threats from President Trump in Montana that if China responded to US tariffs that he would implement the potential for another 200 billion dollars on top of that and another 300 billion dollars on top of that Marcus don't appear to be overly concerned about that at the moment and to be quite honest I don't think they need to be because any implementation of new tariffs is going to take quite some time to come to pass and a lot of water can flow under the bridge between threatening to impose tariffs to actually getting them implemented and if you think about where we are now and where we were in April May it's taken a while for the current tariffs to come into effect so that's not to say that the mere prospect of tariffs won't cause a little bit of risk aversion and that's what I really want to talk about I think over the course of the next few minutes ahead of today's payrolls report because ultimately whatever the tariff situation is the prospect for further gains in equity markets is I think likely to be fairly limited while we have that overhang and at the moment we are pushing against some very key resistance levels on the DAX and on the FTSE 100 and these are quite clear in my chart forum post earlier this morning I highlighted that with respect to the DAX with a resistance level around about 12,554 and that was quite significant that particular point simply because it also was the lows that we saw in May and technical analysis is always the study of support and resistance reversing roles what have you and basically acting as support and resistance levels trading levels over the course of a given time period so what we've got here 12,554 on the DAX if we break through that then I think there's a decent chance we could potentially break up towards 12,750 while we're below that then the risk reward would suggest that the market is going to struggle to push it back above those particular levels now we have seen a bit of a rally this week on the back of a report that the American ambassador to Germany talked to German car executives about the possibility that the US might suspend threats of tariffs on autos if the EU removed equivalent blocks on US vehicles well you know that is that is all well and good but unfortunately that's not something that they can do unilaterally it's certainly against WTO rules for the US and Germany or even the EU for a start it would have to be it would have to be agreed at EU level and I think there's some doubt that smaller European countries would agree to a sectoral carve out for German and French automakers on the basis of US tariffs because ultimately it would be once again Germany and France getting special treatment at the rest of the EU and that's something that Angela Merkel the German chancellor sort of talked about in comments that she made to German German parliamentarians yesterday so for now what we've got is resistance levels coming in on the Dax around about 12,550 we're pretty much down towards the lows of the day we've drifted down into negative territory for the day we could head back to around about 12,450 but albeit we are in positive territory for the week the economic data by and large has been fairly positive this week so if we didn't have all these trade concerns I think the outlook would be much more much easier I think to predict for equity markets it's a similar sort of story on the UK 100 ladies and gentlemen look at this channel that I've drawn in here on the footsie it's a beautiful channel it really is and we've got a really nice resistance level up just above these peaks here around about the peaks that we saw earlier earlier this week around about 7,707 we can see that just by clicking on this little cross here rolling across to the actual candle itself and if you look in the top left corner here you've got open high low close box there so I'm just highlighting over that and we can see the height for that particular day is 7,707 so round about if we get a rebound today in the footsie 100 up to around the 50 day moving average and slightly above that there's certainly resistance around about 7,650 on a rebound higher it does happen to be the highs of the week so I think the Yosef is getting up there are pretty remote but if we do then certainly I think there's an opportunity to maybe take profits on any long positions that you might have moving on to the dollar because I think once again it's it's a usual refrain on my part but I think the most important data point today and if we look at the dollar index we can see that here and the most important data point today is going to be the wages numbers and in particular this support here on the dollar index it's a very big support it also more or less coincides with around about 117,3050 area on euro dollar which is pretty much where we are at the moment on euro dollar you know you know my views on the correlation between the two dollar index if the dollar index sells off fairly aggressively then what will happen is euro dollar will go up and vice versa now at the moment we're finding decent support on the dollar index around about 94,15 and that's the equivalent of this sort of low point here we are above that euro dollar has ratcheted higher a little bit and it's pushing up against the highs of the week around about 117,25 but if we if we look if we look at a euro dollar and this is the area that I'm paying particular attention to and this is something that I've talked about in my morning note this area between 117,25 and 30 is quite a big level on the four hour chart I've drawn it in there one thing I am concerned about is that the the the lows are getting higher on the rebound up from the lows that we saw at the end of June beginning of July so the buyers are waiting a much less amount of time before getting back in so we could certainly see a move higher on a break above 117,4050 and head towards around about the highs that we saw in the middle of June or around about the beginning of June at just above the 118 area so if we get if we get a poor number a poor jobs number or a poor wages number that could see the dollar slip back and we could see euro dollar move back up to 117,70,117,80 I'm still of the opinion that this 30,50 level should hold we could well get a fairly decent payrolls number but again it will depend on the wages number and this is the number here that I'm talking about I'm just going to move this out here you see this number here keep an eye on this number here average earnings anything less than 2.8 is a dollar negative okay the highest wage monthly wage number this year has been 2.9 percent that was in January and that was as a result of an increase in the minimum wage coming in at the beginning of the year which pushed the wages number higher since then we've been averaging around about 2.6 2.7 percent so if we don't get that and in question to the morning notes it is posted on insights yes it's the morning call with respect to the average earnings I'd really want to see something in the region of 2.8 2.9 because an awful lot of the refrain that we're hearing out of employers in the in the US is that they can't fill the jobs they're advertising despite the fact that the unemployment rate is at a multi-year lows of 3.8 percent so my argument to that will be we'll basically offer higher wages and then you might get more people interested but that may take some time to filter through but certainly at the moment 1.17 25 30 on euro dollar looks like a a decent barrier we can see it highlighted their support support resistance resistance so I'll be keeping an eye on that in the event of a poor number because we could see a spike up to 1.17 50 if we do get a poor number but more importantly looking at the cable here that's suffering from a little bit of brexit relief brexit tiredness or what have you we've had a bullish reversal on cable earlier this week or the end of last week so I think as long as we hold above 1.32 on the pound then I think we could well move up a little bit towards 1.33 1.33 1.34 I don't expect that to happen today quickly got to move on to the Canadian dollar because obviously it is the Canadian jobs report today and that's the number down there 24 000 if we get a decent positive number then it's likely the Bank of Canada will raise rates next week so that means that we could get a strong Canada and a break of this key support level here at 1.30 1.30 if we get a weak US number and a strong Canada number then watch out below for Canadian dollar we could go to 1.30 75 very very quickly so please bear that in mind ladies and gentlemen with respect to these numbers here the unemployment rate if that comes in at 3.8 3.9% not really that concerned 195 again the expectation for US payrolls slightly weaker than the number that we saw in May again not overly concerned if that misses to the upside or the downside by a significant amount if it's a low number it could just mean that the US labor market is very very tight and they're not being able to job they're not being able to fulfill the jobs that are available not that the jobs openings aren't there they just can't basically get the numbers through the door and that's where this number here comes in so while we while we head into the numbers those are the those are the levels that I'm looking at quickly look at the S&P again big resistance at 2746 so I'll be looking for a few sellers to come in around about that level 2746 and a retest towards the downside with trade tensions and everything else I think it's going to be very difficult to ascertain where we're going to go to but ultimately this is all about the dollar okay so Canadian jobs have added 31 000 my numbers are late average hourly earnings came in at 2.7 so that's weaker than expected so that's dollar negative that means your dollar is going to head higher June payrolls 213 000 and that's better than expected and US trade deficit 43.1 billion here we go and the unemployment rates jumped to 4 percent in the US so all in all that's not a particularly great set of numbers for the dollar we are testing towards the upside there is slightly dollar weaker component going on here trying to find out why the unemployment rate has actually come in quite significantly higher and maybe that could be because the participation rate has gone up there could be any number of reasons for that it could just mean that more people are coming back into the workforce so I'm going to check the labor participation rate for that to establish whether or not that has been a reason the unemployment rate has gone up and yes the the participation rate has increased from 60 um no that's a Canadian participation rate let me see if I can find it 62.9 so yeah the labor force participation rate has gone from 62.7 to 62.9 that's why the unemployment rate has jumped from 3.8 to 4 percent so more people are coming back into the workforce that has pushed the participation rate up so the fact that the unemployment rate has gone back to 4 percent is it's disappointing but it's certainly not the end of the world. Canadian jobs report better than expected by the looks of it and as a result we've seen the Canadian dollar push lower and the likelihood is we'll probably can we'll probably see it start to head back towards that 130 below 131 towards 130 80 and with respect to euro dollar watching that 130 117 and a half area but overall it's dollars probably going to remain a little bit weaker for the rest of the day as a result of that weaker average earnings number and that is really disappointing because when you've got a tight labor market when you've got more people coming back into the workforce you would expect to see this number come back towards 2 point to head back towards 2.9 percent and 3 percent and maybe that's why Mr Trump didn't tweet about the jobs report this month maybe it's not a particularly um noteworthy number that unemployment has just jumped back from 3.8 to 4 percent you can't really sell that on the ask things oh yes unemployment rates gone back to 4 percent make America great again yada yada yada doesn't really doesn't really um swing well so we've got US markets heading back towards the top of their recent ranges not surprisingly because there will be a perception that maybe that will make the Fed slightly more er towards the dovish side because inflation isn't so much of a concern but again i'm watching this 2746 area and i think it's going to be very difficult for US markets to really push significantly beyond that yes momentum is starting to turn positive yes we've seen a fairly positive week but in a holiday shortened week for US investors are they going to be wanting to go home long over the weekend and my hunch would be that they probably won't so we've seen some good gains this week i'm i would i would suggest that the likelihood of further aggressive buying is probably likely to be limited in terms of further upside particularly when we've got this resistance level through here at 20 2746 if we look at the Dow we've got a similar sort of area of resistance coming in on this particular chart here as you can see we've been quite volatile on the Dow you can see that from the very long shadows on the daily candles you can see that we've tried the top side we tried the downside and the volatility has been there the direction hasn't so again it's difficult to really say with any degree of certainty where the Dow is going but certainly i think if we if we take it down and make it slightly shorter term you can probably draw a nice little line through these highs there and a nice little line through these lows there to draw what is what looks like quite a nice little triangle there we go right there and there we go right there and yeah that's quite a nice little that's quite a nice little pattern unfolding there so i might might keep an eye on that this afternoon to see whether or not we get a breakout of it over the course of the next few hours not forgetting that obviously the official us session opens in 55 minutes time if any of you have any other questions or any questions at all on what i've been talking about or whether you want me to talk about a particular um a particular product that i haven't quite touched upon yet please feel free to direct a question over i'm watching your questions as they come in um and i'm happy to answer whatever questions you might have with respect to um with respect to any of the markets that we cover dolly yen it's pretty much a snoozeville dolly yen at the moment we're looking at a fairly tight range on that i think the fact that we've had a fairly weak wages number will limit the upside to around about 110 75 and we'll probably look to test to around about 110 20 over the course of the afternoon session sadly i think the volatility this afternoon is likely to be fairly limited given it's us hope it was the fourth of july holiday i think a lot of us traders will probably have taken extended um some extended time off okay i'm being asked euro cad so let's have a quick look at that in light of the canadian jobs report um quite surprised to see um euro cad actually uh push higher so let's have a quick look at the oscillator on that because you would expect canada not to weaken but to strengthen on the back of those of that canadian jobs report let me just well the line of leader resistance on euro cad sir is higher we've got a nice trend line coming in from the lows here which i can draw in right there and we have if i now drill it down into the four hour chart to try and figure out where the next resistance level is and the next resistance level is through these peaks here around about 154 60 so in the short term i think the upside in euro cad is likely to be capped around 154 60 but given the longer term direction of this particular pair i would expect to see um a move up towards these previous highs that we saw at the end of june which currently comes in at around about 155 90 so in a definite uptrend on euro cad certainly look to buy dips maybe sell a little bit into the rally here but that would be very countertrend and would be something that i'd be a little bit reluctant to do certainly um certainly ahead of the weekend in any case because the risks of you being wrong are much more much higher than they are if you than if you buy the dip where you have support on the trend line and also where you have the 50 and 200 day moving average so that is euro cad very much in a decent uptrend but the dollar does appear to be showing further signs of weakness and it looks to me as if we're probably going to head towards 118 in euro dollar and head up towards 133 20 in um in cable and head down towards 110 25 so a weaker dollar should be generally positive for us equities um that should underpin it but overall i would expect a fairly modest trading session over the course of the rest of the next three or four hours let's have a quick look at the ozzie dollar because that's taken a bit of a battering in recent times and that again is also pushing up towards um the top end of this week's range with the potential that we could actually be carving out a little bit of a bottom down here there's a nice little resistance coming in currently where we are at the moment but it's in the context of an overall downtrend so i think any dollar weakness in the ozzie is likely to be confined to the top of this trend line this this trend line that i've drawn in from the january highs here so we'd expect to see any short squeeze in the ozzie head back towards around about 75 20 75 30 let's look at gold gold has got to be one of those currents or those commodities that's really really um had me scratching my head because ultimately given all the concerns that we've heard about trade and everything else you would expect gold to be an awful lot higher and it's not it's actually come down but there does appear to be some signs that maybe we're on the cusp of a little bit of a rebound let's look at this here now those of you who listen to my webinars on a fairly regular basis will know that i like this particular pattern it's a bullish engulfing pattern on the daily candle and that generally means that um we could we'll see a reversal of the prior trend well we have a prior trend this is it from the april peaks we've come down quite a bit from 1350 to 1250 we've carved out a little bit of a bottom down here and we're finding a little bit of support on this dotted line around about 1252 1253 i think while we hold above the 1250 area on gold i think there's a good chance we could head back to 1275 over the course of the next few days so as i say recap as long as we hold above 1250 then i think there's a decent probability we could head back towards 1275 um oil prices are our favorite president trump loves tweeting about him amongst other things he likes tweeting about a lot of things what oil prices is one of his um it's one of his bug bears with his war on pretty much everyone except um except his wife i think even then that's under debate we look as if we could well have seen a little bit of a top here um we are starting to roll over on brent crude we didn't take out the highs that we saw in may even though us crude prices actually did take out the highs that we saw earlier this year nonetheless it does appear to be a little bit of weakness starting to creep in the oscillators started to roll over we're finding a little bit of support on the 50 day moving average but if we break below the 50 day moving average and looking at this here we've already broken below the lows that we saw on the 3rd of july at 76 85 and we're now at 76 55 we could well come back and retest this trend line here but make no mistakes even if we do see a little bit of oil weakness um we've still got the potential to come all the way back to around about 73 or 74 dollars a barrel and we're still in the overall uptrend that we've been in since the beginning of the year mr trump wants higher or lower oil prices but he's determined to turn the screw on opec to make sure they keep the taps wide open despite the fact that he's decided to implement sanctions on iran now this is interesting we've broken below this key 72 65 area on us wti now that suggests to me that we could well be heading for a nice correction on wti so i think with respect to this um we now that we've broken below this key support level as long as we stay below this peak here 73 40 then we could we'll see a move back towards 70 dollars a barrel over the course of the next few days but again you know taking positions ahead of the weekend is always a dangerous thing because ultimately you don't know what could happen over the weekend something could happen in the straits of hormones and the oil price could spike higher so an iran have already threatened to try and block the straits of hormones and if they try and do that you can be rest assured the united states navy will have something to say about it and that could actually push oil prices quite aggressively higher i've just been asked what i'm not clear about with oil is that trump is going for the juggler so to speak with iran but if they stop supplying to the market surely price is going to go up yeah that's absolutely right that is exactly what has happened but that's also why president trump has asked opec or Saudi arabia in particular to open the taps to try and compensate for the loss of iran's exports or iran's production unfortunately for president trump i don't think math is a strong point because iran pumps out 3.8 million barrels a day the Saudi spare capacity is only around about two million barrels a day so there's still a 1.8 million barrel shortfall that being said too much oil or not enough oil is not a problem that the us shale producers have the biggest problem the us shale producers have is getting the oil out to market and turning it into gasoline and other distillates because at the moment refining capacity is pretty much at its limit and it's getting it around the country to where it's needed however he wants to keep prices low because he doesn't want us gasoline prices to move anywhere near towards four dollars a gallon ahead of the midterms which are in november so his embargo on iranian oil will drive prices up and it has driven prices up but the big question is where is the ceiling on crude prices now for wt i it's probably around about 75 dollars a barrel for brent it's 80 dollars a barrel but what that doesn't price in is the risk premium if iran carries out a threat to blockade the straits of four moves because if they do that then oil prices could go even higher now there is a danger to them doing that if they send hot oil prices through the roof they could trigger a global recession which will then kill demand at source and then they won't be able to sell any oil or certainly they won't be able to sell anywhere near as much as or much oil as they would like to so we're in interesting times so in terms of crude prices we do appear to have broken down in us crude and we could well head back towards 70 dollars a barrel and brent crude prices look as if they're about to roll over but i wouldn't expect the down i would expect the downside to be fairly limited so i'm hoping that answers your question on oil prices if it doesn't please feel free to ask a follow-up one other thing that has been a little bit concerning is despite the fact that we've seen significant improvements in economic data over the past few weeks copper prices platinum prices commodity prices have been falling and that does suggest that does appear to suggest that maybe the recovery that we're seeing in equity markets is fragile because generally if the economic recovery is doing well globally demand for this sort of product copper platinum palladium should be fairly positive and it's not so there are concerns there they could be to do with trade they could be to do with the fact that people aren't ordering platinum and palladium for catalytic converters and for cars because they're worried about tariffs on cars so there could be a trade element to that but it is concerning when demand for basic resource materials starts to decline another thing i'm keeping an eye out for is this break in the hong kong china rate shares index which is broken it's 200 day moving average which would appear to suggest that we could be in line for further decline since hong kong china rate shares over the course of the next few weeks we can also see that despite the fact that we've had an awful lot of headlines about massive declines in chinese markets we're still above the lows that we saw at the beginning of 2017 so we've still got some way to go before we can start talking about a significant route if we fall below 10 000 i'd start get a little bit worried we're well we're well north of that at the moment but certainly that is something to keep an eye out for in terms of chinese markets over the course of the next few days and the next few weeks okay so it's 1348 ladies and gentlemen that's non-farm payrolls for this month unless anyone has any questions i'm going to wrap this up now i will obviously record i am recording this so i will post this online afterwards if you want to listen to it back but otherwise i'd like to once again thank you for tuning in and wish you all a very nice weekend and the rest of the trading week and look forward to speaking to you next month when the july a payrolls report comes out thanks very much for listening guys and have a good weekend


All right, what's this this is a blinking LED now, it's a blinking TFT This is a round 2.1 inch TFT And I just haven't turning on all the pixels white and off and the reason I'm doing that is I'm actually trying to debug this Which is trying to get the large four inch screen working with the ICN-6211 and it's not working And I don't know what's up And I think that's due with this screen initialization Which happens over SPI, but the problem is I've got Raspberry Pi, kernel, device overlay, ICN configuration, SPI configuration, ATT, there's too many variables So what I do is I'm actually testing this up first on a known working platform Because I'm always like start with a known working thing change one little tweak to you know, figure out what's going on and then Adjust and adapt until you figure out exactly what your root cause is and I actually don't have the ESP generating any TFT signal what I'm just doing is the SPI configuration and if you look over here on the The data sheet Sorry all pixels on there you go There is this mode called all pixels on which will turn on all the pixels for you and you don't have to have TFT signal It just does it directly from The SPI commands and so over here what I've got is a little bit of code that sends the init sequence init sequence But then it appends to the init sequence the command to turn all the pixels on and off And so now that I know that that init sequence is good I'm going to move that code over to the ATTiny over here And that'll let me know whether I've got the SPI init code and wiring working and then I can work backwards fix the ICN fixed advisory overlay and basically get it all working with a Raspberry Pi


Hey, what up everybody? Welcome back to the seven day challenge. We're on day two today We're going to talk about using tooth brushing. Yes, tooth brushing as a way to practice Slowing things down when you need to I know it's gonna sound ridiculous to talk about tooth brushing And I think the thumbnail for this is mindful dental hygiene for the wind So I'm just kind of being a little bit silly about it But tooth brushing can be a valuable tool to help us practice going slower a little bit every day So that when we practice it and get better at it, we can use it when we need it So let's wait for a few people to show up I don't know how many people are gonna pop in but feel free to just say hello in the comments when you do if you're in The Facebook group. I'm not going to be able to see your name. I'm only gonna see Facebook user But if you're on YouTube or if you're on the Facebook page, I will be able to see your name. So that's fine Let's get into it. I don't know. Like I said, I don't want to wait too much longer We're gonna try and keep these 10 15 minutes or so at the most and let's get into it so I want to talk about mindful tooth brushing or Trying to use tooth brushing as a means to slow down what I would like to do is my teeth are claiming What I was just gonna look at the comments as we go. So I see people are piling in excellent so the Mindful tooth brushing or learning to brush your teeth very slowly and carefully is a thing that is near and dear to my heart and let me tell you why because when I was on my recovery journey and My recovery was heavily based on getting out the door leaving the house and driving by myself As far as I could because that was a problem for it to go or phobic, right? One of the things that I discovered really quickly was that before I could get really good at my driving exposures The act of getting ready to go out the door to do my driving exposure was an exposure by itself So I would know I'd wake up in the morning very first thing that I wanted to do my exposures first thing in the morning I put my feet on the floor and start going right and I would start the day then in an absolute panic because I knew What was coming?  So I discovered pretty quickly that one of the things that I had to do was first work on the act of getting myself ready to Go out the door If I'm gonna go out the door at a level 10 panic then I wasn't gonna give myself much room to work in the driving exposure so it became the exercise really became the getting ready part first and Part of that was brushing my teeth, right? So I would get up. I'd walk to the bathroom. I'd wash up I would do what I had to do and I would literally have to teach myself Practice and work on brushing my teeth while I was in an 100% state of panic I was in a panic attack and I had to work on brushing my teeth while I was doing that now at first It would be super fast that I did it like I was just trying to rush through everything because of course I was in a panic so my heart is racing and I'm breathing heavy and my lizard brain is telling me to do everything really fast The key for me became when I slowed down the tooth brushing and I said okay I'm going to have to learn to just sort of move more carefully and mindfully through these sensations And it started with my toothbrush as crazy as it is So the way I did this with my toothbrush was I said okay I started to give myself like I said yesterday on the showering episode I started to give myself the space to only have one job like in any given moment I decided I only really have one job to do and at that moment the only job that I had was to pick up my toothbrush and then when that job was done I only had one job to do in the world and that was to pick up the toothpaste Right and then when that job was done the only job I had in the world to do was to take the cap off of it So you see where I'm getting at I probably backed up that sequence a little bit It's gonna take the cap off before I pick the toothbrush Then my only job was to put the toothpaste on my toothbrush Then my only job was to put the toothpaste back down on the shelf So I literally had to break tooth brushing down into the tiniest most discrete Components right so I wasn't there to brush my teeth. I was there to take the cap off the toothpaste That's all I was there to do that was the only requirement that I had of myself was to complete that tiny little task Then move on to the next tiny little task And then that led to actually like okay each stroke of the brush was a task All I have to do is do these teeth all I have to do is my back teeth All I have to do is the top of my teeth and I just tried to take every stroke as slowly as I possibly could That was not easy because remember in the beginning when I was doing it I was doing it in a blind panic It was really hard to do because I was shaking and I had all the things going on you guys know what that is right? So I just had to practice it every morning I had to practice brushing my teeth as slowly and mindfully as I could while I was in the middle of panic and That actually started to work really well for me It started to change things in a big way as I went it got better and better and better at it And I really kind of refined the practice of breaking down the act of tooth brushing Into these tiny little discrete steps and just only having to do those one one job after another just this then this then this then this then this So that's how I want you to approach tooth brushing now when I learned to brush my teeth that way I started to apply that to other things also in that morning like getting ready routine putting on my shoes Putting on my socks. It was in the winter. So I had to get like winter clothes on tying each shoe Putting each sock on putting my jacket on one arm the other arm But it started in the bathroom with my toothbrush. So I did an Instagram live a couple weeks ago with Dr. Jen Wolken Jesus psychologist here in New York near me and she in her book quick calm She writes about mindful tooth brushing is crazy. It sounds and when I was reading quick calm I was texting her furiously like oh my god. You're talking about mindful tooth brushing It is such a silly little task that all of us do every day most of us many times a day or at least a couple of times a day and that will give you an opportunity to try this so brushing your teeth slowly and deliberately and breaking it into each individual task and Only having to complete each one of those tasks as you go little bit by little bit one thing at a time Just chain them together until you complete your tooth brushing is a really excellent way to practice Putting the concept of mindfulness and even meditation to a certain extent into practice So instead of being overwhelmed by the idea that like okay now I have to learn to be mindful I have to make this big shift into mindfulness. I have to change my mindset. I have to ground I have to do know you don't all you have to do is take the cap off your Toothpaste and then all you have to do is rinse the toothbrush All you have to do is turn the faucet off in the sink like do that try that like so Mindful tooth brushing as crazy as it sounds is a really good way to practice those mindful things Just paying attention remember we talk about attention paying attention to each Individual subtask as you do it fully and how I what I had to learn about that is that I had to learn to not Qualify my mindfulness, which I wrote about in seven percent slower there I Couldn't qualify my my mindfulness because I had to just accept that right now I'm trying to mindfully brush my teeth and at the same time I am feeling a very high level anxiety or panic So you have to get your focus onto the task at hand which is those individual subtasks of brushing your teeth and Not so much worried and judging the fact that you might feel anxious or stressed or rushed or or upset while you're doing that You can still mindfully brush your teeth even though you're not feeling great at the time I more than one thing could be true at a time I could be mindful and I could also be feeling anxious or afraid or stressed or rung out or whatever under pressure Whatever it happens to be So I would urge you to try that try that today try that for the next few days You're gonna brush your teeth anyway, so it's a really good opportunity to start to learn to do something Mindfully and using the the concepts of attention and focusing your attention and paying attention to what you're doing and Deciding where your attention should be in a really easy Accessible kind of way it doesn't involve buying, you know yoga mats or meditation cushions and it doesn't require You know reading de-packed Chopra or Eckhart tolly. I see me Eckhart tolly books like just brush your teeth mindfully It's a really easy way to practice. All right, so We could do that. We can do that. So let me look at some of the comments I'm wondering if you guys tried the shower thing. I see Dave try the shower thing.  Let's put this on the screen Let's let's all celebrate when we are doing good stuff, right? Let's help each other out took a shower for 20 minutes last night And I felt really good and relaxing. I had a few bad thoughts, but I could really be with them a little worried about anxiety But yeah, I did it dude. Yes, you did it That is the lesson of the slow-motion shower You were able to take a 20 minute shower Let those thoughts be there and just kind of move through them because you kept your attention on your shower So that's really great and the fact that you found the shower even relaxing to a certain extent is a huge win So you should be proud of yourself keep trying Some days you are going to stumble because that's new to you and you're gonna fail at it and not be so great at it That's okay There were many mornings when I totally sucked at mindfully brushing my teeth because I was in a panic and I didn't do a Good job of it. That's okay. This is how we do it. Let's see. We'll take a few questions We'll go for another five minutes or so How do I well that's a really question for this topic? How do I overcome the fear of high HPP? I assume you mean high blood pressure That's really a health anxiety thing and I do have a podcast episode multiple podcast episodes that address health anxiety So if you go to the anxious truth comm and just the search bar and search for health anxiety You'll see an episode that I did with a Norwegian Psychologist who treats health anxiety. I've done a couple other episodes on I did one by myself So check that out. Like it's not really a thing. I want I can address here because it's not the topic What does let's see here? Just when I okay Laura says let's see what Laura has to say What up Laura? What about when you wake up late just one of those mornings? I rushed this morning and totally brought on all panic How should I respond? It's a good question like we also have to live within the parameters of life So sometimes we are rushed so in the book. So I know somebody trying to teach me how to get ready There right over the top of this Mike boom so in the book I actually Acknowledged that and I wrote a little chapter that says you mean I'm never allowed to go fast. No, you are allowed to go fast Life presses on us sometimes sometimes we have time constraints. That's okay But I think Laura the answer would be how should I respond if you have to quickly brush your teeth that morning? Because you're late getting the kids to school. That's all right brush your teeth quickly that day That's alright just when you can practice going slowly do it when you can so that when you wind up in a pressured morning Because you're in a time constraint and you're late You are more likely to be able to disengage a little bit and slow down Because we're not talking about necessarily slowing down to a crawl where you don't get the kids at the door For instance, you're just you're slowing down by such a small amount like seven percent Which is I know you can't really do seven percent But I picked a small number because you're not slowing down so much that you're going to be more late But you can slow down enough so that you're not in engaged in frantic activity So I think we talked about that I don't remember so I talked about in my Instagram live with Dean over on DLC on Monday A lot of people say but if I slow down I have so much to do I'm not going to get it done No, that's not true. You'll actually get everything done Understand that there's a difference between being quick and being frantic So the object of practicing like mindful tooth brushing and this sort of stuff is to learn that you can sometimes be slow when you have that luxury But even when you have to be quick, you don't have to be frantically quick. Hopefully that answers the question It's a good question, too. I Appreciate you guys having faith in me. Just lift your left hand and point This is so weird because I'm I'm absolutely not spatially challenged. I'm really good in three dimensions But for some reason this ain't working So let's see what else we got a couple more I'll try and take a couple others my ten minute shower went well So somebody in my Facebook group excellent glad to hear that Tracy says let's see what Tracy has to say I remember being so anxious to take a bath. I rushed but now I'm back to relaxing for ages If you're getting out of that bath and you roll wrinkly because you've been it so long good on you. Good job Sometimes you can really get to enjoy that bath or that shower, right? Which is really kind of cool Viola says late notification from Facebook.   Oh This is good. Okay, somebody in my Facebook group. I normally empty the dishwasher while cleaning my teeth multitasking right and as somebody who has worn my Ridiculous freakish ability to multitask as a badge of honor I feel you on this like I had to give that up There are times when I'm really thankful for my ability to do a lot of things at one time But I can't live like that all the time. I had to learn that so this is good Like brush your teeth and then do the dishwasher. You're allowed to do those two things. Give yourself a break So that's a really good realization that you had So let's see here Okay, this is a good point to again someone in my Facebook group Shara went well So I tried it this morning while making my mom breakfast. It feels so different But I like it it will feel different Like if you are used to obeying that amygdala command to speed up speed up speed up If you're going to start doing things much more slowly and mindfully, it's gonna feel really strange Really strange in the book. I talk about Exaggerating your slowness. I think I wrote in order to learn how to slow down 7% that arbitrary number that I that absurd number You probably have to practice going 13% slower so that when you need to you'll get 7 So you have to exaggerate a little bit and it's gonna feel a little weird a little uncomfortable, right? So let's see what we got here. I've got a lot of people here today I start leaving my house this week. So I'm walking for about maybe 200 meters and Okay, want to run that's a you know, that's okay, Renata I'm not gonna put that up because it's not necessarily a topic right now I understand what you're doing is really scary But the running is makes it worse, right? So, you know this that's for a different different topic though Let's see who else we got I love reading in the bathtub, okay must not use that as avoidance If you can enjoy that your baths and stuff and reading the bad time good. It's no problem. Do it This is funny Becky says I have read Drew's book in the tub Which is if you've been watching the recovery room that we do on Instagram every Friday every once in a while that comes up I think it was Josh that started by saying he listens to my podcast Well, he's in the bath and it's become a running joke any who that's what's going on Okay, let's see here. I think I know who this is even though Restream isn't showing me brushing my teeth with a start to my recovery and now I'll make it even slower I feel you because the story I told about mindful tooth brushing It was a big deal in the early part of my recovery First of all learning that the first thing I had to do before my my driving exposure was to get good at leaving the house In a better state So that I gave myself a little room to panic when I have I start to panic that I can't really panic in the car Right, so I had to give myself a little room understanding that and breaking it almost into two tasks getting ready and then driving was huge and The beginning of changing the task of getting ready in the morning And you guys have heard me talk about having a morning routine and how important that is the tooth brushing was foundational So as crazy as it sounds this little 15 minute video right here about mindful tooth brushing is super important to me like on a personal level So there you go All right, very good. Let's see here Well, this is extreme. So let's talk about that. I know who this is Exaggerated brush my teeth. That's why it lasts 10 to 15 minutes. That's okay. That might be the exaggeration that you need For now and if you want to brush your teeth for 15 minutes, that's perfectly okay if you can do that No, there's not a crime, but sometimes the intentional over exaggeration, which is in this book You exaggerate your slowness so you learn to go slow because it's gonna feel foreign to you So if that's what you're doing for now and if you continue to do it There's no problem, but you may have to really exaggerate that to get the hang of this So there you go I brush my brush for three minutes on my toothbrush timer Yes, and it's so funny because I think I wrote in my Instagram post that the NHS of the UK says you should brush your teeth for at least two minutes I have a what do I have a like a sonic hair toothbrush? Like they say three minutes You take you three minutes in fact a toothbrush times it maybe you have the same thing it times it So it tells me when it's ready like okay do the top of your teeth the bottom of your teeth It's kind of interesting But it's funny how we notice these things when we slow down and be you know present in those in those tasks like brushing your Teeth all right guys, I'm gonna end it. Let's see here. I hope your podcast reaches India It's so bad and stereotypical over there Well, I mean if you can if you have the internet then yes people in India can listen to my podcast You can find the podcast at the anxious truth comm slash listen if you are not listening to the podcast It is literally like now six or seven years worth of free stuff all about this topic So you can go listen to that and if you are interested in getting a copy of seven percent slower I'm just gonna let this be a running gag for the next five days.  Sorry guys This is where you can get it right so the anxious truth comm slash SPS Kindle today Which is we'll get you over to the Kindle edition if you're watching in the future Just go to seven percent slower comm and that will get you all the purchase links because if you're watching this in the future the paperback will be out next week the audiobook will be out next week I recorded two more chapters this morning and Yeah, and we'll get it into other places besides Amazon hopefully in the next 10 days also So thank you guys for coming by today and try mindful tooth brushing today and tomorrow be back again I think tomorrow we're gonna talk about mindful hair brushing as crazy as it sounds and Yeah, I want to see everybody does brushing their teeth nice and slow So I will see you guys tomorrow and good luck with this. Let me know how it goes


Major sponsors for Abledon On Air are Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health, Al-Israel. Additional sponsors include Geffen Foods Israel, Osam Foods Israel. Major media sponsors for Abledon On Air include Parkchester Times, Muslim Community Report, Associated Press Media Editors, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International. Welcome to Abledon On Air, the one and only program that focuses on needs, concerns, and achievements of the definitely-abled. I'm your host, Lauren Seiler. Arlene is off today. Thank you to all our sponsors. What you're about to see is part one of Mental Health Awareness Day at Montpellier State House in Montpellier, Vermont. Let's take a look at speeches from Governor Phil Scott and Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman and others. Let's take a look at this. I'm going to introduce someone, I think, many of you, that's Representative Ann Donahue. The committee, which is so packed with people, actually half the people are spilled out into the hallway. And Mental Health Commissioner Sarah Squirrel, who I think is on her way down here, was just up presenting. And then the committee will be hearing from many folks who are here for Mental Health Advocacy Day in the next hour or so. But on my way in this morning, well, not actually on my way in because I couldn't read and drive, but I happen to be reading this article in the December issue of Counterpoint Disrandomly this morning. And I came across this article in it that said, Reflections on 25 Years of Advocacy. I thought, wow, that's fascinating. I wonder who wrote that article. But I looked at it and it was talking about somebody who said, she first encountered peers as support way back in the early 90s. It was the first place she encountered a peer group of support was actually in the hospital. And that was where she began to understand the power of that and became involved, deeply involved through all those years since then as a leader in peer support, peer advocacy, and the whole consumer movement, the psychiatric survivor movement from that time. She co-led the State Standing Committee for Adult Mental Health Services for some 12 years. She was on the Bermont Psychiatric Survivors Board of Directors for so many years in those past 25, she can't even remember when she started, but recently retired as the chair. She still remains active and sort of trying to calm down a little bit in all of her levels of activity, still on the BCIL Board and on the ELISM Board, but an incredible leader and an incredible force through all those years. So I am thrilled to have been asked to be the one to present this person with this year's Community Advocacy Award, which goes to, of course, Marty Roberts. Lovely, lovely presentation, and I so much appreciate this award. And I accept it on behalf of all of the folks with whom I've worked over the years, you folks in this room, active in the community and people in the wider community, people who have spoken out, people who have advocated, people who have worked to bring us all help, inclusion, and participation in our community. And I'm so proud to be part of it. Thank you. I guess I'll end with a little-known facts about personal history. Okay, it's okay. So Marty and I first met many, many years ago at Central Vermont Medical Center as inpatients. And Anne is working all the time on behalf of our issues. Thank you, Anne, so much. Do we see- No, we don't. Okay? We're going to have a number of state leaders come in and speak today, but I don't think any of them are here yet. So I would like to have someone else come up and tell their story, and I'll try to get this right. How about Richard Bales? Richard? Susannah Yeager? I haven't spoken in a long time to people, and this is my first mental powder. Okay, great, great. I'll preface this with, can you hear me? The state of Alaska in four years is coordinator in Northern Alaska, and then I worked mental health for 11 years on call for 17 years. The state laws of Vermont. For me, August 31, 2018 was when I was asked to go up to Northwest Medical Center by Northwest Counseling and Support Services, NCSS. I went up there of my own recognizance, and when I got there, I was placed under involuntary commitment. I had no idea, I was told that I would get a ride back home if I quickly got up there. NCSS assumed that I was suicidal. I wasn't. I was highly, had high anxiety, but I wasn't suicidal. It was not one evaluation in speaking, I get a bit angry, but I was in Northwest Medical Center seven days in the ER on full display to everybody under armed guards by sheriff's department, deputies who believed I should not be there. I, NCSS assumed I was suicidal. As I say, they had no evaluations, and their critical error is made by, I don't know if I can name names. Better than that. Okay, but by the petitioner, they made a number of critical errors as to place, times, dates, telephone communications. I have the transcripts of those, what people said, what they didn't, and yet nobody ever asked me. They just told me, and they left me there on Friday. The NCSS psychiatrist came in. He told me to sit down. I wasn't going to sit down the way he said that. He stood and he reamed me out for calling crisis so many times, but no mention of suicidality. And that's what I found on a board, high up in the room, little letters, suicide ideation. And so I assumed that's why I was there, but nobody ever told me. I'm exhausted. It's been 17 months that I have my voice. I've been online. I've had 19 visits by law enforcement to my house for welfare safety checks. I've had nine rescue come to my house. I've had eight voluntary hospitalizations. I mean, I went into UVM Medical Center. I don't go to, and I've severed ties with NCSS. I work with the Howard Center now, and thank God for the Howard Center. NCSS did not follow processes as they were not professional, neither was Northwest Medical Center. Northwest Medical said I was clear medically. They didn't ask me one question, nor did they talk with my providers. I have prolonged UT, and many medications could cause cardiac arrest for me, and that's a slight medical problem. I was suicidal in the spring because I was on a medication that made me suicidal, but I realized that I was still calling crisis NCSS. That was my first mistake to call them. But I called them, and I kept calling, and I kept saying I was suicidal, but really what I had was anxiety. I got off the medication. It took three or four weeks to get the medication out of my system, but I just kept on saying I was suicidal when I really wasn't. However, because they never asked me, they never knew. The sheriff deputies, regarding me, knew they didn't know why I was there, and when I was sent to Brattleboro after seven days with no 12-hour state-required evaluations at all, and no initial evaluation as I stated. When I sent the nurses at Brattleboro continuously, I talked with them a lot, and they continuously said, we don't know why you were sent here. This has been a dramatic experience for me. It's 17 months out. My life has deteriorated. I had plans. I was going to refinance my house, go back to choir that started in mid-September. I had signed up for Seneca. I had a safety plan. I had a safety team, and yet the psychiatrist, Vermont psychiatric care hospital said to me that... It was evident. She had made up her mind that I was going involuntary when I got on the little cell phone that NCSS gave me. That is not telemedicine. We had telemedicine in Alaska in their late 70s. That was better than what they provided me. It should be a face-to-face, two-way communication. Instead, she interrogated me. She told me she didn't trust me at all, and that I was confusing her, and that I was going involuntary. I do believe that she had made up her mind before. I could go for months. Negligence and dereliction of duty by Northwest Medical, Northwest Counseling Support, and Vermont psychiatric care. I was sent to the most restrictive environment when the commissioner states that even prisoners should go to the least restrictive environment. Tell me if I... So, five more seconds? Five more seconds, absolutely. Oh my gosh. I'm just... I had this printed out, but then I had it right. Petitioner wrote down that I was found at a bridge. He put this in the petition. That I was found by the sheriff at a bridge in South Hero. And I said that I was going to go off that bridge. Well, if the petitioner had been in South Hero, he would have known that the lake was dry. And there was no... The Thomas Bridge was maybe 15 feet off the dry lake bed. There was never any incident with the bridge. But somebody reading that who didn't know would think I was going to go off the bridge.  There was no bridge. As I said, there were other critical errors made. There were said no evaluations. And I think... I'll see. My last statement would be that NCSS, Northwest Medical and Vermont Psychiatric Care committed suicide on me. Easier. Or rather, yes. They committed suicide more than I could have ever committed suicide on myself. I don't have a life. I have a voice. I use it online. And I will continue. Because I know if this happened to me, and obviously I know it's happened here, it's happened and it is happening to other people. Thank you. I didn't see you in the back, Mike. I want to introduce the first of our luminous state folks. And he's new to an old job. And how are you liking it so far? It's been interesting. And that is our new secretary of the agency of human services, Mike Smith. So much. The microphone doesn't work very well, so I'll try to project here. I do want to start off by saying thank you for the people who are brave enough to come up and talk about those instances that have happened to them personally. Let's give them a hand and a applause. Second of all, I do want to read a proclamation from the governor. And then I'll get into some of the things I want to talk about. This is from the governor, whereas one in five individuals are living with mental health conditions in the United States, and whereas Vermont, like the rest of the nation, is addressing mental illness and substance use challenges by combining effective promotion, prevention, treatment, and recovery support, focusing on strengths and promoting resilience, and whereas the health, well-being, and quality of life of all Vermonters is impacted by these chronic yet treatable health conditions. And virtually all Vermonters know someone in their network of family or friends who are affected, and whereas Vermont's mental health organizations continue to educate the public and lawmakers about the effects of mental illness and substance abuse and the value of treatment and long-term recovery, building capacity for trauma-informed care and best practice intervention and support for people living with developmental disabilities and whereas Vermont's mental health advocacy day is designed to remind all Vermonters that mental health and substance abuse conditions can respond to proper and timely intervention, treatment, recovery, support services including the support from peers who have had successful recovery experiences and that people living with developmental and intellectual disabilities are equal members and willing contributors of our communities. Now therefore, I, Phillip B. Scott, Governor, hereby proclaim January 29, 2020 as Mental Health Advocacy Day in Vermont. Let's give it up. Thank you very much, and as Peter had mentioned, I'm the new old guy. I had this position 15 years ago. And I've got to tell you, when you have these positions, you go back and you think about your career.  When you're thinking about your career, you think about the best positions you ever had in your career. And I've had a lot of positions in my career. The reason, when I was going back and thinking, you know what? Being Secretary of Human Services is the best and most rewarding experience I ever had. And I never expected to get a phone call and be back here. So you just reflect and say, I wish I would have savored that experience. I wish I would have had more of that experience. And here I am within that opportunity. And the reason why is because we all struggle in life. We all struggle with various things in life. And the one thing that we always have is help sometimes. Now, a lot of Vermonters don't have friends or families that can help them. This agency, the agency of Human Services and what you do and all the organizations, especially in the mental health field, what you do are those friends.  And in the last 15 years, I've heard more and more of that. I don't buy that. Government is a friend. In many instances, especially in what we do here at Human Services. You know, the issues that we grapple every day are complex. And we've got to be available to respond to the most vulnerable Vermonters and work together in order to do that response. As a community and state partners, advocates, peers, and family members, we must all commit and continue to work together to ensure a strong mental health system of care. I have told Department Heads a couple of things. One, bad news can't wait. And two, good news can wait. So, you know, I've instilled that in the agency that bad news can wait. So I want to talk about bad news and some good news as we move forward. First, the bad news because it can't wait. We've got some challenges here in Vermont that we need to address. Wait times in EDs, and I just heard about a story about this. Wait times in EDs for both adults and children and youth are unacceptable. We need to do better. Current trends in suicide rates in Vermont that are higher than the United States rates, we need to do better there. Or the growing sense of hopelessness and despair that many of our young people and older Vermonters grapple with is something that we need to do better. And I've got to tell you, this shocked me when I saw some of the reports on the youth in Vermont and the pessimism about their future. It just, it really does sort of hit you when you read about that and think, what is going on here? The agency and the administration have clearly underscored the urgent and important need to strengthen our mental health system in Vermont. We've committed to forge a path to ensure fiscal stability to the Brattleboro Retreat. You've heard a lot in the news lately about the Brattleboro Retreat. We are under discussions with them to put some fiscal stability into the Brattleboro Retreat. 12 new level one beds and the development of a 16 bed physical secure residential facility are underway investments in suicide prevention efforts and working with our community mental health agencies to strengthen our proactive community crisis efforts for children, youth and families through the mobile response teams. And this is one of the things we're going to experiment in Rutland with mobile response teams. But you know, there's a lot more work that needs to be done. And we must look strategically at the future of our mental health system. I've said this over and over again as we need to look forward and where do we want to be in the next few years. And we must rethink the system of care and move towards a system where mental health and health care are integrated as we move forward in this effort. DMH the Department of Mental Health's 10 year plan outlines the framework to begin to achieve this and improve quality and access to care for Vermonters. As I've always said we have to keep and then this is something else that I tell the department heads within the agencies. We have to keep our foot on the gas and we can't let up. This is hard work but we're stronger together working together. And it's an honor to rise up to the challenges facing our system of care and working side by side with all of you to strengthen it. So thank you very much. I really appreciate the time. We've got one problem which is that we've got so many people here that it's a challenge. And I want to introduce Sarah from the state, the Capitol Police, right? She's going to talk about that for a second. I'm not even going to use the mic guys. I just want to really briefly let you know it's a really great thing that we're over capacity because of the awareness that we're bringing. However, it's also a danger to the people in the room when it gets so packed that we can't move and we can't open the doors. If something happens, there's a medical emergency or anything like that, we need to be able to gain access. With that being said, we're not allowing anybody to save seats in here. If you leave you need to take your stuff with you because when one goes out one comes in and like I said we're at that capacity level. I am going to be sending in people to take up these seats that are available. So if you do have stuff in seats, please move that stuff. If you leave the room they're to come in. So again, if you leave you're not guaranteed to get back in. There is a line. If you don't mind clearing out those chairs, I'm going to go out and let you know. Who were scheduled to speak have managed to get in the room. If it's all right I'll start with the President Pro Tem of the Senate, Tim Ash, who is standing with yet another important senator. I'll introduce all three of you first and then you can speak and two of them stop talking. I'm going to introduce all three of you. President Pro Tem Tim Ash, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Jane Kitchell, also my senator, and Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson. And one more, who's here? Did I hear one more person here? Everybody happy you're not hearing that metallic noise now? All right. I'm going to speak loudly without the microphone so that you don't hear that weird noise in the background. I might not go on quite as long as the previous speaker. Is that okay? All right. I have to tease him from time to time. So my name is Tim Ash. I'm the President of the Senate. And as you just heard, one of the people who's in the room with me is Jane Kitchell. She is the chair of the Appropriations Committee, which is the committee that writes the budget every year. And the budget is where most of the programs that support our mental health system come from. And I want to say that each of the last three years, while the governor's budget has not proposed increases in mental health services, the legislature originating with Jane Kitchell and then working with our counterparts, the speaker and members of the House, we have made some of the most significant increases in mental health funding in decades. I want to say, first off, I'm so impressed at how many of you have come here today. It's very rare to have a standing room only audience here. It's to say that as you travel through the State House today, you're going to meet many legislators and people who work in state government. And most of them are going to say some version of this. Yeah, we really need to provide the support for people in crisis. We need to support the people who do the work, the people who work for our mental health agencies and work alongside their clients. We support the work, we value it. But the question I want each of you to ask those people is this, okay, then what are you going to do about it? Okay, it's not enough just to value the work and to value the existing system when we know there's so much work to do to build and strengthen and improve it so that we can improve and help people's lives. So that is the question I'm asking each of you to ask your legislator is what are you going to do about it? I have to say on a personal note, this is the last year I'll be here in this capacity. I am not going to be running for a reelection because I'm running for lieutenant governor. So it's my last chance to say to you that ultimately none of this is about the legislators who are here today. Our work is only based on improving the lives of people in this room. So when you talk to legislators, they act like they're too busy sometimes to talk to you. Their work is here to further the benefit of your lives and make sure they hear that loud and clear. Ask them what they're going to do to support you and make sure that when you see legislators like the Speaker and Senator Kitchell, Kitty Toll, the chair of the House Committee, Anne Pugh, Ginny Lyons, and a number of the other champions of the issues that you're here today. For those people who have taken action and done something, they're the ones. Give them a quick thumbs up and a thank you and encourage them to do still more. Thank you so much. Senator Kitchell. You don't want to say a word? It's very shy. We're coming. I'm not going to say very much. I used to be actually secretary of the agency of human services. I've been in human services, social welfare programs, and before many people in this room were actually born. I started in 1967. So I have represented 50 years plus of commitment to improving the lives of homeowners. We do place a high priority on it. It is something that is very important to me personally. We do our best as we ponder and make commitments. And I think our track record, as Tim said, has been pretty good over the last several years. It's a great pleasure to work with you. I serve, actually I'm now on the board of Northeast Kingdom Human Services. I'm experiencing it from many different angles. So thank you all for coming. And we will continue to work and do our very best. Hi, Mary. When the governor's out of town and the lieutenant governor's out of town, the next speaker is the governor. And last year I met with her on a day when that was the case and I got to hug the governor. That's not always what I want to do. It was a treat. And as Mitzi Johnson, our speaker was finished. That's irrelevant. I will talk as loud as my voice will allow me. I'm getting the Statehouse Dreck out of the way early in the session. It is my great pleasure to present another one of the legislative leadership awards to Teresa Wood and Diane Lamper. Diane Lamper is on the Appropriations Committee. She and I served there for a number of years. She has more fortitude than I. She's still there. And Teresa Wood has been a critical member for many years of the Human Services Committee and formerly with what's commissioner, Department of Aging and Independent Living, disabilities, deputy commissioner, excuse me, of Dale, their experience, their passion and the knowledge that they bring to the policy work and the budget work is incredible. And they are lucky to have all of you here helping to feed your ideas and experience to them and you're really lucky to have the two of them. They worked tirelessly this summer studying numerous proposals, attending, I don't know how many meetings, looking at the new federal rules, looking at rewiring the payment model, improving accountability and transparency of the developmental disability system of care. The changes that are proposed are going to have some of the largest on the ground impact since the closure of the Brandon training school and it takes a tremendous amount of volunteer hours is what all of the summer work amounts to to pour through those things and really think about how are these rules and federal laws and intricacies on paper going to affect somebody's life? How is this going to help Vermonters live with dignity and independence and fulfillment? And so all of the work that they do goes way above and beyond the call of duty that they signed up for in this and we're so grateful to both of you for all of your work and want to come on up here. Teresa, you are fierce and knowledgeable and so respectful in your ferocity of the people that you defend and who you keep in your heart every day. Thank you so much for everything. So side note, legislators, many of them come from far away and have a place in Montpelier to stay overnight and whatnot so we don't have to drive an hour or two or more home. Diane and I have been roommates for years. And so in addition to all of her incredible work during the session and every minute that she is in her seat ready to go, books open, mind engaged on the appropriations committee. She is also that at home around the kitchen table in her pajamas, pouring over budget books. I know, things I'm not supposed to say but I do. And you're so intense about all your details of work and you do every minute of it with a smile. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here everybody and thanks for speaking up. I totally support what the pro tem said about reaching out to your legislators, sharing your stories and saying, so what are you going to do about it? These two ladies do it every day. Our next speaker, yet another luminary from our state government is Lieutenant Governor. He's running for something. I can't quite remember what it is. Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman. Here I said, you know, I hug too. Thank you for having me here again this year and I actually, during the day while I'm in this building I'm wearing one hat which is serving as Lieutenant Governor although I appreciate the joke and other remarks. I just want to say that you've heard me say this before but ultimately those of you in this room who either live with care for, support are related to folks who are working with mental health and recovery your experiences are experiences that many people in this building don't know and don't have. Some do, whether it be the two legislators that were just mentioned and honored, which is great. There's some other legislators who have direct first hand experience but the reality is we as policymakers are very knowledgeable about what we know but frankly like everyone else in our society there's a lot we don't know. We know a little bit about many, many other arenas and whatever committee we're on maybe we get to know a little bit more or what issue that we have come here with a passion to work for, we know more. But, and this is to really reinforce the Senate Pro Tem's remarks. We as policymakers, of which I'm no longer a policy maker as Lieutenant Governor but I was for 18 years so I'm going to say we anyway, really rely on you for your experience or your passion or your knowledge that you can contribute to this process. I really want to emphasize this because the joke I often tell is that the whole reason I ran to be Lieutenant Governor is so that I would have one staff person because as legislators they have zero. They have zero staffers to do research, to do constituent outreach, to do anything for them, schedule them. They are trying to juggle their life outside of this building. They only make 12 to 14, maybe it's 15,000 a year which is not an only, that's a real amount of money but it's not enough as many of you know to live on and so they have another job. So they're juggling a lot and their source of information as good as many of the advocates in this building are for these issues is still limited to those few people and others who are advocating for lots of other things and lots of other needs that are needed to be met in this state. And so when they do hear from you which to be perfectly honest is often less frequently than we all want on most issues legislators get two or three phone calls or fewer. On all those bills you hear about in the legislature that go through the news those are only a few high profile ones and maybe those they get five or ten calls on. But honestly people hear from you and others so much less than what a vibrant democracy would have. I'm almost there. And so I'm here as a cheerleader to you and I'm going to ask you a question.  But how many people in this room in the last year have talked to your legislator or all of your legislators. Associated Press Media Editors US Press Corps Domestic and International.