0:00:00.272,0:00:02.614 [music plays] 0:00:06.715,0:00:13.165 Mindfulness is actually a way[br]of connecting with your life. 0:00:13.200,0:00:17.756 And it's something[br]that doesn't involve a lot of energy. 0:00:17.791,0:00:20.552 It involves a kind of 0:00:20.587,0:00:23.451 cultivating attention[br]in a particular way. 0:00:23.486,0:00:25.731 So what--the way I define it is 0:00:25.766,0:00:28.031 it's paying attention[br]on purpose 0:00:28.066,0:00:30.943 in the present moment[br]nonjudgmentally. 0:00:30.978,0:00:34.423 And then I like to add sometimes[br]as if your life depended on it. 0:00:34.458,0:00:36.105 Because it does. 0:00:36.140,0:00:40.428 Attention is the faculty[br]that allows us to navigate our lives 0:00:40.463,0:00:42.722 in one way or another[br]and to actually know what's happening 0:00:42.757,0:00:44.798 or know that we don't know[br]what's happening 0:00:44.833,0:00:51.566 and find ways[br]to be in a wiser relationship to things 0:00:51.601,0:00:53.710 that are going on in our lives 0:00:53.745,0:00:56.965 than being at the mercy, say,[br]of our own emotional reactions 0:00:57.000,0:01:00.783 and crazy thoughts and fears[br]and so forth. 0:01:00.818,0:01:04.092 So, it's paying attention[br]on purpose 0:01:04.126,0:01:07.116 in the present moment[br]nonjudgmentally 0:01:07.151,0:01:09.181 as if your life depended on it. 0:01:09.216,0:01:11.902 So, paying attention to what?..[br]you might ask. 0:01:11.937,0:01:14.680 Well, it doesn't actually matter. 0:01:14.715,0:01:18.599 It's the attending itself[br]that's important, 0:01:18.634,0:01:21.947 more important than what it is[br]that you're paying attention to. 0:01:21.982,0:01:25.591 But that said,[br]if you start to pay attention 0:01:25.626,0:01:28.766 to how much attention[br]we pay to anything, 0:01:28.801,0:01:31.596 you begin to notice[br]that the mind is all over the place. 0:01:31.631,0:01:33.673 It never sits still. 0:01:33.708,0:01:36.980 This idea and that opinion[br]and this reaction and... 0:01:37.015,0:01:39.532 We spend a huge amount of time 0:01:39.567,0:01:42.066 planning and worrying about the future 0:01:42.101,0:01:44.890 and a huge amount of time[br]reminiscing about the past 0:01:44.925,0:01:47.800 and who did what to whom,[br]or why it worked out this way, 0:01:47.835,0:01:49.592 or why it didn't work out this way. 0:01:49.627,0:01:52.726 In the present moment[br]which is the only time 0:01:52.761,0:01:53.741 that we're ever alive in, 0:01:53.776,0:01:56.073 the only time[br]we could learn anything 0:01:56.108,0:01:58.635 express any kind of love or emotion, 0:01:58.670,0:02:00.600 the only time we could be[br]in our own body, 0:02:00.635,0:02:02.813 the only time we can see,[br]or hear, or smell, 0:02:02.848,0:02:05.440 or taste, or touch, or... 0:02:05.475,0:02:07.916 communicate[br]is now. 0:02:07.951,0:02:11.337 And yet the present moment[br]gets completely squeezed out 0:02:11.372,0:02:14.653 by all of our preoccupation[br]with the future and the past. 0:02:14.688,0:02:16.760 When we start to pay attention[br]to our own mind 0:02:16.795,0:02:18.134 and our own body, 0:02:18.169,0:02:20.565 it's like reclaiming your life. 0:02:20.600,0:02:23.267 Mindfulness is not a technique, 0:02:23.302,0:02:24.769 although there are many, many[br]different ways 0:02:24.804,0:02:26.154 to cultivate mindfulness. 0:02:26.189,0:02:29.421 It's actually a way of being:[br]being embodied, 0:02:29.456,0:02:31.336 being in some sense in equilibrium 0:02:31.371,0:02:33.861 with the comings and goings[br]of the outer world 0:02:33.896,0:02:36.528 and even the comings and goings[br]and the ups and downs 0:02:36.563,0:02:40.109 of having a body[br]which of course has it's wonders 0:02:40.144,0:02:43.059 and is also at sometimes[br]seriously problematic 0:02:43.094,0:02:46.315 when we're dealing with health problems[br]of one kind or another 0:02:46.350,0:02:49.816 or things that can happen to the body. 0:02:49.851,0:02:53.509 And as long as we have this capacity[br]for awareness 0:02:53.544,0:02:55.178 why not develop it? 0:02:55.213,0:02:57.075 Much of the time, 0:02:57.110,0:03:00.281 if you think about our educational system[br]and how we grow up, 0:03:00.316,0:03:03.446 we are trained more and more and more[br]to get into thinking. 0:03:03.481,0:03:06.521 And thinking is wonderful stuff,[br]very powerful. 0:03:06.556,0:03:10.530 Some of the greatest achievements[br]of humanity 0:03:10.565,0:03:12.157 come out of thought 0:03:12.192,0:03:14.690 and out of imagination[br]and out of creativity. 0:03:14.725,0:03:18.640 But the other piece of it[br]that's equally as powerful 0:03:18.675,0:03:20.491 as the capacity for thought 0:03:20.526,0:03:22.281 is the capacity for awareness, 0:03:22.316,0:03:25.028 but we get no training[br]in awareness and attention, 0:03:25.063,0:03:26.789 huge amount of training in thought, 0:03:26.824,0:03:29.922 so a lot of time when we get into bed[br]at the end of a long day, 0:03:29.957,0:03:33.658 we can't deal with our thoughts,[br]and we can't sleep. 0:03:33.693,0:03:36.599 They just kind of perseverate[br]over and over and over again, 0:03:36.634,0:03:37.903 the same thoughts. 0:03:37.938,0:03:39.500 We want to shut them out. 0:03:39.535,0:03:41.881 The more we try to shut them out,[br]the more they come in. 0:03:41.916,0:03:43.663 And pretty soon you don't get to sleep, 0:03:43.698,0:03:47.449 or you wind up[br]with a, basically, chronic anxiety, 0:03:47.484,0:03:49.984 or some kind of condition or other. 0:03:50.019,0:03:54.614 Depressive rumination[br]can spiral you into depression. 0:03:54.649,0:03:57.412 A little bit of sadness[br]and then that triggers 0:03:57.447,0:04:01.077 this kind of perseverating constantly[br]"What's wrong with me? 0:04:01.112,0:04:03.193 "Why don't people like me?[br]Why didn't she look at me?" 0:04:03.228,0:04:06.022 Whatever it is.[br]These are all thoughts "I'm no good. 0:04:06.057,0:04:10.399 "I'm too old.[br]I--My life is all downhill from here." 0:04:10.434,0:04:12.963 All of those things,[br]they're only thoughts, 0:04:12.998,0:04:16.140 but most of the time[br]we think of them as the truth. 0:04:16.175,0:04:17.641 So what mindfulness does, in a way, 0:04:17.676,0:04:21.853 is it embraces the actuality of the mind,[br]the heart, the body, 0:04:21.887,0:04:24.997 and our relationality[br]with the outer world 0:04:25.032,0:04:27.410 and gives us new degrees of freedom 0:04:27.445,0:04:30.188 to navigate the ups and the downs[br]and the ins and outs 0:04:30.223,0:04:32.447 of our relationships with life 0:04:32.482,0:04:35.163 with other people, with... 0:04:35.198,0:04:37.789 our own aspirations, and our own fears, 0:04:37.824,0:04:41.269 and also, and most fundamentally,[br]with our own body. 0:04:41.304,0:04:43.528 Now most of us don't want to go[br]anywhere near own body 0:04:43.563,0:04:47.313 except under very specialized[br]circumstances at particular times. 0:04:47.348,0:04:50.691 Seems like, wow it's wonderful[br]to have these bodily experiences. 0:04:50.726,0:04:54.507 But a lot of the time,[br]we're just pretty much up here, 0:04:54.542,0:04:56.192 thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. 0:04:56.227,0:05:00.504 And really believing[br]so many of these thoughts as the truth 0:05:00.539,0:05:02.701 that we wind up in a very narrow band 0:05:02.736,0:05:04.605 of what's actually possible for us 0:05:04.640,0:05:07.647 in terms of our human experience. 0:05:08.426,0:05:10.740 [music plays]