Technology
Meditation for Grown-Ups
In this episode of 'Meditation for Grown-Ups,' hosts Leah Palmeri and Matt Stillo explore the essential skill of slowing down through meditation. Joined by mindfulness expert Kaisanga Gaskoo...
Meditation for Grown-Ups
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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This is an I Heart Podcast.
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Ruby.
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Hi, I'm Leah Palmeri.
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And I'm Matt Stillo.
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Welcome to grown-up stuff.
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Today, we're going to learn one of life's most important skills, slowing down.
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That's right, Leah.
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And are you someone that is good at slowing down?
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No, not at all. Are you?
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No, in fact, I am the least present person in the world.
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So, I think slowing down will be something that I should learn.
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And unfortunately, I wasn't with you on this interview to learn it.
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But I can't wait to listen in.
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We missed you very much.
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And you are going to pick up some very important skills when you listen.
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Because today, we are talking about meditating.
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And I'm so excited.
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We're joined by Kaisanga Gaskoombe, who is a certified mindfulness and meditation teacher.
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And he is going to improve our lives with all of his insight.
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Truly.
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Ah, go ahead, take a deep breath, because peace is on the way.
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I can't wait for him to teach us about what meditation really is, what the benefits are, and how you can become better at it every day.
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Spoiler alert, Matt.
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It's actually very simple. You can do it.
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I believe in you. You can actually incorporate this into your everyday life,
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and you're going to feel so much better when you do.
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Honestly, I don't know a single person who couldn't use an extradose meditation in their life.
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So let's learn from Kaisanga Gaskoombe.
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Greetings, greetings. My name is Kaisanga Gaskoombe.
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I am presently a mindfulness and meditation teacher.
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I'm a former licensed acupuncturist, former licensed psychotherapist,
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but full-time mindfulness and meditation teacher these days, a muscle writer.
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I'm a native New Yorker, currently residing in North Carolina, and meditation really, really saved my life.
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I'm all about mindfulness and meditation and being patient with yourself and all about present-moment awareness.
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And with that being said, I would love to start out by dropping into a very brief meditation.
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Let's do it.
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And if it's comfortable for everyone, just taking a gentle deep breath into your nose,
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and out through your mouth.
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And with that exhalation, just allowing your full presence and attention
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to gently drop into this moment right here and right now.
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And allowing your eyes to close if that's comfortable for you.
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Noticing your posture, nice dignified, comfortable posture of awareness.
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And now just shifting the attention to your breathing, to your breath.
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And just noticing the coming and going of your breath.
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Each in-breath, and each out-breath.
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Not forcing anything at all, breathing naturally.
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And once again, if it's comfortable for you, taking a gentle deep breath into your nose.
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And out through your mouth.
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Allowing your eyes to open if they were closed.
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Maybe adding some gentle movement to your space.
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And yeah, let's get into it.
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I mean, I could have stayed like that all day just to be clear.
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I do have many questions, but I'm like, should we just disregard them and just continue to meditate?
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Well, thank you so much for bringing us on that journey to start off.
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I absolutely needed that today.
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So I'm glad that we are now very present and in the right space to have this conversation.
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So let's start out with a very basic question.
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And we have all hopefully just experienced it.
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Hopefully, no closing your eyes if you're driving while listening to this.
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But on a very basic level, what is meditation?
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Meditation on a very basic level is bringing your full attention to the present moment.
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You can do it formally, you can do it informally, but it's really putting your full attention on something.
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Whether it's your breath, whether it's a mantra, whether it's an object or a sound.
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But it's taking that moment to just pause and bring your full attention to that object or sound or whatever you choose.
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I can't imagine anyone would have just experienced that really nice moment of meditation and not wanting to do more of it because I certainly did.
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But I think, and this is a shout out to Michael Hoesmaat and also his mom, who he is trying very much to get into yoga.
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I think there can be a little bit of a stigma around it.
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Like, oh, is this like too hippie-ish and what am I doing?
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What can we let people know about meditation that there are real health benefits to this?
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How can we help people to start to try it out and to start to experience those benefits just in their everyday life?
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Sure, sure. And I love that you mentioned that there are many stigmas because there are.
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And I think those stigmas is what makes it more difficult for people to embrace this idea of meditation and mindfulness.
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They are different, but I do use them interchangeably.
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One of the ways to despise these stigmas is to talk about what meditation and mindfulness isn't.
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So it isn't about perfection, it isn't about floating and being tranquil at all times.
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It's really about bringing your attention to whatever it is that you're doing in the moment.
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So for instance, you and I are having this conversation right now, right?
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So essentially, this can be a meditation in love itself because I'm bringing my full attention to this conversation, theoretically speaking.
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It takes practice, but even something as simple as brushing your teeth, getting dressed, conversations, allowing the full attention to be with that activity that you're doing in the moment.
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And it's tough. It's tough because usually our minds are just going. They're going a mile a minute.
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Either we're focused on what's to come or we're thinking about or ruminating about the past.
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And while we're doing that, our present moment lives are just passing us by.
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Yeah, I always forget. Did I put on deodorant today? I can never remember.
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Yeah, I do just need to be present and be like swiped under the left, swiped under the right, we're good to go.
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When the shower, right? And the shower, that's something that happens with me.
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Wash my left foot. Yes.
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Exactly. Yes.
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Yeah. I'm like, did I wash my face? I've either done it zero, one or now two times. We don't know.
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But once I click into the moment, then it does happen before we get into a little bit more about the practice, what are some of the physical and mental benefits of incorporating meditation into your life?
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Great question. There has been literally hundreds and hundreds of research studies done on the benefits of mindfulness meditation.
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Often I serve as the meditation instructor on such studies.
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So some of the benefits lower blood pressure, reduce the occurrence of headaches, decreasing the occurrence of these chronic diseases such as diabetes.
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And then the big one, and this is something I touched for me personally, is not so much stress reduction, but I like to say stress resiliency.
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Because sometimes the source of that stress, it's not something that you can reduce or get rid of.
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It is present. But what you can do is increase your resiliency to that stress, your ability to bounce back from that stressful experience.
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So mindfulness meditation has been huge as far as increasing your stress resiliency.
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A big one also is sleep. Yes. Many people deal with sleep irregularities.
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So mindfulness meditation has been proven to improve sleep patterns tremendously.
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Need it, obviously. How does doing meditation work to have these benefits on your mind and body?
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So we're going to get a little scientific here. Let's go. Let's go.
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Absolutely. So we have the nervous system.
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Then you have the power sympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system.
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So the sympathetic nervous system is that part of the nervous system that's known as fight or flight.
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It's designed inherently in our body to protect us, either getting us ready in the face of danger to either fight or to run from that danger.
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So it serves us well. And so what happens is during this sympathetic nervous system response, a lot of hormones are secreted in the body.
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One of these hormones is a common one stress hormone known as cortisol.
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So cortisol is designed to dump sugar into the bloodstream. Why do we need sugar in the bloodstream during fight or flight?
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Because we need that quick burst of energy, either to fight or to run.
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So what happens when the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated soon after what kicks in is the power sympathetic nervous system.
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Now the power sympathetic nervous system, also known as rest and digest, is designed to bring the sympathetic nervous system back down.
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So it counters the sympathetic nervous system. Now what happens during chronic stress is that sympathetic nervous system is stimulated and it stays stimulated.
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You get this surge of these hormones being secreted in the body and it doesn't shut off.
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So for instance, if cortisol is continuously being secreted in the body, and cortisol is in charge of increasing glucose in the bloodstream, what kind of disease can result?
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Diabetes.
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Diabetes, exactly.
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And so it's wild with stress in particular. Not only does it continuously stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, but it actually with chronic stress, it has been proven to destroy the power sympathetic nervous system.
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So not only is your sympathetic nervous system consistently being stimulated, but now the power sympathetic nervous system, it doesn't operate.
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So you're just in this chronic state of stress, so that's where a lot of chronic diseases come from, high blood pressure, diabetes, which can lead to stroke, heart attack and what happened.
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Now the beautiful thing about mindfulness and meditation studies have shown that not only does mindfulness and meditation stimulate the power sympathetic nervous system, but it also repairs that part of the power sympathetic nervous system that has been destroyed.
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So when I found that particular piece out, I was blown away.
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Because I know like, for instance, taking a deep breath into the nose and out to the mouth, that actin of itself stimulates the power sympathetic nervous system.
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That's why oftentimes when someone is stressed out, what do we say to them?
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Child, child, take a deep breath, right? But with meditation, not only does it stimulate the power sympathetic nervous system, but it also repairs the parts of the power sympathetic nervous system that has been damaged from chronic stress.
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Take that cord is all we don't need that much of you today.
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Great, I love the science part of it too, but let's talk about just the practical part.
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Okay, I'm going to do this. I really want to start on my meditation practice. What do I do? Do I just sit there? How do I get started with really incorporating this into my everyday life?
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So what you want to do is you want to really start meditating for at least one hour a day. Wow.
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Absolutely not. So that's what I thought.
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I was going to say, that sounds wonderful. Where does he think I am finding that one hour?
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But that's what I thought though. When I first discovered mindfulness meditation, I thought that's what I had to do.
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I thought because I was looking at all the gurus and I even heard, oh, I forgot who it was, but they were interviewing an Oprah and he said he
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just wanted to meditate for one to two hours a day. I was like, shit.
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That is the appropriate response to that by the way.
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Yes, I was like, that's what I have to do. And so I actually tried to do that in the beginning.
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And obviously that was not sustainable by any means. And plus I have tight hips. So I was trying to sit cross leg. Not a good look.
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But then I realized I don't have to do that. So if you want to start out with a meditation practice, something that I recommend to all my clients is to keep it simple.
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So a technique that I often recommend is, let me ask you, Liam, when you wake up in the morning, like literally physically, how does that look from when you open your eyes?
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It looks a little like, well, like, yeah, it depends on the time of the year to usually it's, do I see the light outside?
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And can I hear the birdies? And so do I know that it's like a time that my body is supposed to be awake or is it still dark and quiet?
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And I should be rolling over. All right. So you roll over and that's perfect.
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Because right now you're tuning into your present environment. So you listen for the birds. Right? Yes. All right. That's awesome. So for you, I will start there.
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Okay.
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If that's something that you're used to doing, then if you're on my client, I will say to start there. As soon as you open your eyes, if you're used to listening for those nature sounds, take a moment, maybe take a gentle, deep breath into the nose, out of the mouth.
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And with that exhalation, bring your attention, maybe to how you're feeling your body, but then bring your attention to the nature sounds, because that's what you're used to.
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Right.
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For someone that's not used to listening for nature sounds, at some point, you're going to have to sit up and your feet are going to have to hit the floor at some point.
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So what I recommend is use that. As soon as you have feet hit the floor, that's your prompt. Right there on the edge of your bed, drop into a gentle practice.
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I love this. And it doesn't have to be 30 minutes, literally one to three minutes.
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Just breathing and just centering yourself. Right. And bringing your attention to your breath, bringing your attention to how you're feeling, feet flat on the floor.
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I like to call it a comfortable and dignified posture of awareness, setting up nice and straight. You could close your eyes if you want to, but you just woke up so that I might make you want to go back to sleep.
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Well, so you could use eyes open. Right. And just maybe looking slightly downward and just drop into the present moment, bring your attention to what's happening here and now, and then you eventually bring your attention to your breathing.
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And just for a few breaths, noticing like we did when we opened up today, the inhalation and the exhalation. You're going to notice thoughts, my hair sounds, that's fine.
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Yeah. Those are what we call mild distractions, noticing the distractions and bringing the attention back to the breath, always coming back to that focal point.
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Now the idea here, and this is a huge word that I use frequently is consistency.
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Consistency is key. So doing that every day, eventually, and this is how it worked out for me. And of course, you might miss a day or two. And that's fine.
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So being gentle with yourself, definitely through the process. And I can almost guarantee it. You'll find that if you do it consistently, you may think one day, okay, three minutes.
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Let me go a little more. Let me see what five minutes feels like you go a little more eight minutes. Right. And so it gently increases. And it's fine if it doesn't. Okay.
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But I think you'll find with that consistency, starting your day like that, it feels good. And it brings you into that present moment awareness. It trains you and gets you ready to kind of be in that space for the day.
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I love this. This is very easy to incorporate because usually I'm sitting on the edge of my bed, feet on the floor, preparing myself for when I stand up and what part of my body is going to hurt first in the morning.
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So you get me, you have tight hips. So you know that when you stand up, you're going to be some creaking.
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Absolutely. All you grab your phone and you're scrolling.
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Oh, well, I'm trying to break that habit. I am trying. But yes, this is much better of really feeling present before I'm even all the way out of my bed.
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I can work with this for sure. And we all have one to three minutes then. So that's nice.
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If not, set your alarm clock for one to three minutes earlier when you need to get up. And then we can start to really incorporate this.
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We'll be right back after a quick break.
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And we're back with more grown up stuff. How do I do?
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The next question is going to be a little tougher for you, which is what am I working towards when I'm really trying to build this practice of meditation?
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Well, it's not necessarily really working towards anything. There's a concept of mindfulness called non-striping.
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We all have goals in life. Hopefully. Yeah, even if it's just to have a good day.
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Yeah, yeah, that's a big goal. Yeah, absolutely.
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So we all set these goals. And there's nothing wrong with setting goals, nothing wrong with having goals.
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But oftentimes what happens is when we set these goals, we're hyper focused on the goal.
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And these goals are going to happen when in the future. So if you're so hyper focused on what's the come, we're missing out on right now.
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This present moment, I like to use the analogy of sports. I used to work a lot with athletes.
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So in any given sport, what is the ultimate goal?
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Winning championships. Yes, that's the ultimate goal. No matter what the sport, the road to that championship usually starts in the preseason.
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Oh, yeah. And usually it's a workout. And then after that workout, let me shift into strategies of plays if you're dealing with other sports.
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Right. So then you have to practice those plays. Then the season starts starts with that first game.
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So the idea with mindfulness is bringing your full attention to each moment.
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Because if I'm in the preseason workout, and all I'm thinking about is that championship, then how effective is that workout really being if I'm not fully focused on it?
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Now, doesn't mean that you have to forget about your goals. In fact, I encourage my clients every so often, look at your goal and envision yourself getting that goal, use that visualization technique.
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And then gently let it go and bring your full attention back to the present moment.
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So oftentimes we're in this autopilot mind state, where again, we either thinking about the future or remodeling about the past, but our present moment experience is just passing us by.
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So we're not experiencing fully life itself. So that's what mindfulness, you know, meditation is really just designed to bring your full awareness to right here and right now.
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How do I know that I'm doing it right because having that one to three minutes in the morning is wonderful.
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But that is also time when your brain starts to kick in and you're thinking, oh, I got to go by bananas at the grocery store today.
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Oh, I didn't write back to that email from yesterday. I can't believe I still have that laundry. How do you push those aside to really get into I'm in this moment right here. And this is where I'm focusing.
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There's a saying there's no right way to meditate. So during a meditation, I do encourage you to have a dignified posture of awareness.
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Right. You don't want to be so. Yeah. I like that you say dignified to because that really does make me feel like the queen that I am. And so that does help me remember.
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Like, you know, you are sitting up straight girl and you are ready. Exactly. It kind of promotes that idea of awareness. That's what it's really all about just that awareness.
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And so if during the meditation, you're aware, oh, wow, my mind is really going right now. The thoughts are just flooding in.
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Guess what? That's your experience in that moment. And that's perfectly okay.
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Yeah. If you try to control your thoughts, if you try to control what pops up into your mind, you're going to drive yourself bananas. Right. I mean, I think we've all experienced where for no rhyme or reason, some absurd thought pops up into our head.
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Yes. We've all experienced like, where did that come from?
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Yes.
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So notice the thoughts, even if it's an ache, as I mentioned, I have tight hips. When I first started, there's a sharp pain that starts in my hip.
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And the idea, okay, let me notice the pain, try to ignore it. I can even exacerbate it. So, okay, let me breathe into it. And then of course, if you need to shift, shift your position and you calibrate.
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So it's the same thing in life. If I'm riding the bus, I remember I grew up in New York. And I was not practicing back then. But if I was, it took me an hour and a half, one way to get to school.
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Oh, wow.
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I got the trouble from the Bronx to Harlem. So as you can imagine, that commute, I was fully stimulated. And at the same time, thinking about what was to come for school.
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And so if you take the morning commute, it's easy for your attention to just be pinging all over the place.
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Right. And that's fine. If you're driving, all right, let me bring my attention back to driving. Right.
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How scary is that? Right. Yes. Right. Your mind might drift off again. Okay. Let me bring it back. So that's literally the practice.
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Noticing when your mind is fragmented and bringing it back. Noticing and bringing it back. You've watched the Mandalorian. Yes.
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Okay. So when I'm in the Mandalorian, this is the way. Yes. So this is the practice. Right. Noticing and bringing it back. Rinse and repeat.
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And if baby Yoda's there, then baby Yoda's there. So exactly.
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Exactly. Being gentle with yourself. I think there's this thing where you're supposed to be perfect.
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And perfection can be so dangerous. It really can be so dangerous. So there's another concept of mindfulness called non-judging.
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Us as human beings. We judge everything. And we judge everybody. And oftentimes we judge ourselves.
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Oh, yes. And oftentimes that judgment is negative, self-deprecating.
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And unwarranted. Right. Exactly. So just noticing, okay, I'm fully judging myself right now.
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All right. Let me get myself together. Let's let that go.
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Also, I think a nice way of thinking about meditation, especially when you're just starting out with that one to three minutes of morning, is that's one to three minutes for you.
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Just for you. And the whole rest of the day is going to be about kids and your partner and your boss and your co-workers and the people commuting around you.
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And you know, your thoughts going all to those other people and places and things that you have to do.
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But like just knowing you have one to three minutes, which I know sounds small, but still one to three minutes just about me.
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There's something comforting about that to me to know like there is a sliver of my day that is about me.
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Absolutely. And like I said before, it sets you up for being present throughout today.
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And knowing that at any time during the day, guess what? You can take those one to three minutes again.
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Ooh, nice. A little treat. Yeah. I would quote like a breathing space. I love that.
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I do it at least five to ten times a day. Do you? Okay.
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Yeah. My kids can tell when I'm doing like they act them up or what have you. Yeah.
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Okay. Papa's breathing again. You know, but it's necessary because we're bombarded by so many stressful.
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Especially today. There's so much going on right now. Yes.
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Please take those one to three minutes multiple times a day just to pause and to recalibrate and to ground yourself.
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For those that have incorporated one to three minutes into their day, whether it's multiple times or even just once and start in their day right.
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And then they're ready to graduate to the next step. Do you recommend that people try just some nice meditative music?
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Should they try a guided meditation? What are the next step in?
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You know, I really want to go deeper into my meditation practice.
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Yeah. If you're going to deepen your practice a bit, I would say another concept of my infamous humor.
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Have fun. Remember to smile and have fun with it.
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Now, I do take my practice seriously, but at the same time, I have fun with it.
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So play around. You know, if you want to try a guided meditation, if you want to try, like you said, music, if you want to try mindful movements such as yoga or dance, experiment and see what works for you.
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If you want to take a class, that's how I got started. I got started taking something called mindfulness based stress reduction, which is an eight week class designed to basically teach you mindfulness tools for dealing with everyday life, everyday stress.
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And that's how I got started. And I loved it. I took it a couple of times, actually.
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And I'm a certified MBSR teacher today. Eventually, I was like, you know what? I want to teach this.
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And so that's when I got my training. Just play around with it and see what works for you.
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If you already have that consistent once three minutes of practice or consistent practice period, I think organically you'll find ways to deepen your practice that resonates with your spirit.
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Do you also recommend practicing with other people? Is there something powerful about doing it as a group versus just on your own?
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There's something very powerful about the group dynamic with meditation. We all resonate or emit, I should say, energy.
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Yes. So if you have a group, I'm just what I think retreats are awesome. If you can find mindfulness or meditation retreat, that's affordable.
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That's in your vicinity. I would definitely say to take advantage of that because they can really be a powerful experience to have my very first retreat was part of my training.
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There's like 150 people in this big hall. I would have you. And just to have that energy of all of those people meditating at the same time, it was pretty powerful.
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Wow. And it definitely elevated my practice and it fueled me to want to deepen my practice. Yeah.
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It definitely gave me that push. Even if it's a community center that holds mindfulness or meditation groups. And also something I used to do for my writing was meetup. You know, the app meetup. Yes. Right. So I would bet money that there's a meditation meetup group that you can find.
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That bring me to another question too. I actually had a former job where they would do like a 20 minute meditation every Wednesday. Like you could go down to a room and everyone could sit there and meditate together.
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Are there ways that we can make this a bigger part of mainstream American culture by implementing it into our lives from work to home, whether it's one to three minutes before dinner with our family or implementing 20 minutes at work.
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So that people's emails are less fiery for the rest of the day. What are ways that we can sort of start to incorporate this into our worlds so that everyone is able to experience these benefits.
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I'm very pleased and happy to see that this and I call it a lifestyle. It's really a lifestyle that's your incorporating. Yeah. I've definitely seen it increase. And even with my own work through my company, I've worked with schools. So that was something that they saw the benefit of.
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Yeah. And more and more schools are doing that. I just saw an article that there was a school in Baltimore, I believe, that replaced the tension with meditation. And they found that the behavioral issues have decreased.
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I love that.
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Yeah. So things like that. A lot of corporations, a lot of businesses are incorporating mindfulness into their everyday culture.
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I was also going into many companies and recommended a mindfulness practice that they can implement in their everyday, whether it is just a, like I said, like a mindful break during the day or during lunchtime. So I am definitely seeing it.
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What else are you seeing in your work when it comes to students or clients that are coming to you and they want help with meditating?
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What are some of the most popular or frequent things that you're hearing from them that they want help with?
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Stress is huge. Okay. Yeah. Today stress and depression, anxiety. Yeah. Those are really huge because that's kind of like where it starts and those things affect everything.
spk_0
So it affects sleep patterns, it affects your health, it affects your motivation, concentration. So that would probably be number one.
spk_0
Just stress management. And again, the way mindfulness meditation helps with stress management is I talked about the resiliency, but also it helps you to make wise decisions.
spk_0
Right.
spk_0
I like to use analogy. If you think of a snow globe as your thoughts or as your life even. And when you shake up a snow globe, what happens? Everything is swirling.
spk_0
Yeah, it goes all over. Right. So that's kind of like how your mind might be in any stressful moment. So what mindfulness meditation allows you to do is to just pause.
spk_0
So if you put that snow globe down and just pause and you take a moment, what happens to all of that flurry?
spk_0
You're letting it settle. It settles. It doesn't get rid of it necessarily, but it settles it and bring some clarity to your space.
spk_0
Right.
spk_0
And it's in this clarity that you're able to gain some wisdom as the ones going on. And then you're able to move forward making more wise and appropriate decisions and choices.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
Oftentimes in stressful moments, we just react. Right.
spk_0
Especially with anger. That's something I dealt with. I come from the Bronx. I had a chip on my shoulder. So I had to learn how to regulate my emotions.
spk_0
And not just react. And I just pop off. Right. So you may react violently. You may grab that bottle. You may grab that pint ice cream.
spk_0
With depression, unfortunately, they can escalate from there. So again, what mindfulness meditation allows us to do is just to pause, recalibrate, get that insight, get that clarity, and then make that wise decision, make that wise choice.
spk_0
You've given us so many amazing useful tips that we can take moving forward. Is there anything that we didn't touch on yet when it comes to mindfulness and meditation that we should be considering or implementing or trying to do as we establish our practices?
spk_0
I would love for everyone in the world to meditate and just to reiterate, we kind of touched on it. Start small.
spk_0
Be patient with yourself. Be gentle with yourself. It's not about getting rid of thoughts or getting rid of the stress. It's actually learning how to be with it.
spk_0
You're changing your relationship to it. So you have to be patient with yourself, remembering the concepts of non-judging. Don't judge yourself.
spk_0
Be aware of when you are judging yourself harshly and judging others harshly. We talked about the concept of letting go. Oftentimes we hold on to these experiences, whether they're good or bad, a great experience you want to hold on to it because it feels good.
spk_0
And oddly enough, even negative experiences we hold on to those two, hence trauma and what have you. So noticing when you are holding on to those experiences, because when you're holding on to them, you're not experiencing what's happening now.
spk_0
So allowing yourself to learn how to let them go. And then humor. Remembering to smile. Yes, there are things that take seriously for sure.
spk_0
But remembering to take that time also to smile. I'm a big fan of stand-up comedy. You like to watch funny comedy dramas or what have you.
spk_0
So you're remembering to laugh and we just smile. Those are the things that I would say are important.
spk_0
Any stand-up comedy, specials or anything you've watched recently that's been making your laugh and just take your mind off of everything else.
spk_0
Because when you are laughing, that is so meditative. If you are hanging onto every word that they're saying you're right there with them, is there anything recently that you can just give us maybe a little something to take our mind off of everything else.
spk_0
Well, for me, the greatest comedian, I'll just say one of the greatest comedians just hands down always has me laughing is the late great Bernie Mac.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
And so I go on YouTube, I go on Netflix, I look at a lot of his old stuff and guarantee to have me on the floor dying with laughter.
spk_0
Yeah. I actually just wrote my own comedy drama.
spk_0
Did you? Okay.
spk_0
Yeah. And as you can imagine, mindfulness and meditation is a theme throughout.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
So maybe next year we'll be having this conversation. There'll be something different.
spk_0
Love that when you're promoting this. Yes, we will talk again.
spk_0
Exactly.
spk_0
That's incredible. I'm glad you mentioned writing too because journaling can also be very meditative too. So that's wonderful.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
I love that you said that, Yelia, find those meditative activities also journaling is huge.
spk_0
Yeah. And when we talked about movement too, I mean, I'm a big yoga gal, but I'm also a big walking gal.
spk_0
And I think you work through so many of your thoughts while you're just walking around the park, walking your dog.
spk_0
Absolutely. However that is too. So I'm a big walker also.
spk_0
Okay. Good. Yeah. Get those steps. Yes. Absolutely.
spk_0
We're doing it.
spk_0
Okay. Sunder, you have been an absolute dream today before we let you go.
spk_0
Where can people find you so they can learn more about you and your practice and all the wonderful like meditation that you are helping the world to do?
spk_0
Sure. Sure. Well, I'm a huge part of what I do every day is answer questions pertaining to mindfulness and meditation and just life in general.
spk_0
Because it really, it's everything. And my Instagram is case hunger, Giscombe at case hunger, Giscombe.
spk_0
And please feel free to shoot me any question that you have about mindfulness and meditation and lifestyle.
spk_0
Incredible. We will tag that for sure in our show notes so that people can find you easily there.
spk_0
And thank you so much for joining us today and for helping us to become grownups who meditate.
spk_0
It was a joy to speak with you. And yeah, we'll talk to you again when your feature is coming out.
spk_0
Well, my pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Leah. Thank you.
spk_0
What's something you're taking away from the conversation with case hunger today?
spk_0
Well, I've been thinking about getting into meditation for a while because I don't feel present a lot.
spk_0
You know, our jobs are very stressful. We're always worrying about the minutia, the detail, the scheduleings, the meetings.
spk_0
At the end of the day, I feel so scattered kind of a lot like that snogleb he was talking about.
spk_0
Sometimes I'll be cooking and my mind is elsewhere and a lot of will be like, are you listening to me?
spk_0
Did you hear what I said? You're burning this thing. And I do just sometimes feel very incredibly not present in the moment.
spk_0
And I think slowing down and letting the snogleb particles sort of settle could help me out a ton.
spk_0
And I think that this almost goes hand in hand with our phones, right?
spk_0
A lot of what I kept coming up for me listening was how distracted we all are.
spk_0
How we're never in the present moment. We're on TikTok.
spk_0
We're looking at the events going on in this part of the world. We're on the email. We're thinking about tomorrow.
spk_0
We're thinking about what happened today.
spk_0
Like I realize how not present I am.
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And it's something that I really want to work on.
spk_0
And so I got a lot out of this conversation. I hope our audience did.
spk_0
And I'm curious to hear what you got out of it, Leah.
spk_0
I'm glad you mentioned that. And I'm sorry that you're being not present results in burnt dinner.
spk_0
Mine usually just results in I don't remember if I put on deodorant or not today.
spk_0
I guess we're going to find out.
spk_0
So that's where mine is. But you're absolutely right, Matt.
spk_0
I do need to be like, no, I know for sure I stopped. I swiped deodorant on both armpits.
spk_0
And I'm good to go for the day. And speaking of bodies, I liked the way he really explained just about the nervous system
spk_0
and how it really has an impact on your physical body and what's inside your body and inside your mind.
spk_0
It's been a long time since I've really thought about nervous systems and learned more about them.
spk_0
So having this reminder and refresh in this capacity was very calming.
spk_0
And I enjoyed that information.
spk_0
The amount of times I've washed my hair twice in the shower because I washed my hair and went, did I wash my hair?
spk_0
And then proceeded to wash your second time staggering.
spk_0
It looks great. So whatever you're doing, keep washing three times maybe. I don't know.
spk_0
You can use your shower time to be your meditation time as well if you want.
spk_0
If I place my attention there, that's what I've learned.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
As long as I have my attention on my actual showering, then it can be.
spk_0
Yeah. Well, I'm very excited to hear how you and everyone listening is going to incorporate these fun facts,
spk_0
this concept of meditation into their everyday life.
spk_0
And you know what Matt, I can't wait to see the results that it has on you.
spk_0
And until next time, good luck being a grown-up.
spk_0
This is a production of Ruby Studio for My Heart Media.
spk_0
Our executive producers are Leopold Mary.
spk_0
And Matt Stillo. This episode was edited and engineered by Sierra Spring.
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And we want to thank our teammates at Ruby Studio including Sarah, you, Ethan, Vixel, Rachel Swann, Krasna, Flidia, Kim, Abbey Aguilar, Harper Wayne, Debra Garrett, and...
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Andy Kelly.
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This is an I Heart Podcast.