Episode Transcript
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0:00
Hi there , welcome to Conversations where we
0:02
seek to advance your leader in team excellence
0:04
by discussing relevant topics that
0:07
impact today's organizations
0:09
. Welcome to the show . Today
0:12
we have Samantha Amit , the creator
0:14
of the Mindful Leadership Online Program
0:17
and Conscious Leadership Digital
0:19
Program , growing resonant , resilient
0:21
, adaptive , high-performing leaders
0:24
, teams and companies . Samantha
0:26
is based in Israel , coaching and training
0:29
leaders from tech and finance
0:31
in 30 countries and 6
0:33
continents to act , achieve
0:35
, collaborate and thrive , which we're going
0:37
to talk about today . Sam is
0:39
co-author of Mindfulness at Work
0:41
, the practice and science of mindfulness
0:43
for leaders , coaches and facilitators
0:46
, together with Professor Jonathan
0:48
Passmore . Sam is an
0:50
MBSR , mindfulness-based
0:53
stress reduction practitioner , studied
0:55
at Bangor University in Wales and
0:58
Reifman University in Israel
1:00
. Welcome to the show
1:02
, samantha . How are you today
1:04
?
1:05
Thank you so much , Katie . I'm really excited
1:07
to be here together with you , especially because
1:09
we also know each other from the past .
1:12
Yes , we do as we
1:14
learn and grow , and team
1:16
coaching . Right , right we're
1:20
in the world that are coming to us from
1:22
today .
1:24
So my accent is South African
1:27
, which you may notice , and today I'm
1:29
in Israel . On
1:31
any one day , I may not be
1:33
actually overseas
1:36
, but in one day I can
1:38
be in six or seven different countries , virtually
1:41
Virtually .
1:42
It's amazing that the virtual
1:45
world has opened up for
1:47
people doing . Like doing our kind of work
1:49
and other work . Although
1:52
I do still love to step into
1:55
a room . I love
1:57
virtual because it's easy
1:59
, but I still have energy
2:01
that I can gain from being
2:03
face to face , right In a
2:05
room .
2:06
Absolutely , absolutely
2:08
. So I work with leaders in companies
2:10
which they can't always meet , and
2:12
the teams or cross teams in , let's
2:15
say , india , switzerland
2:18
, us , some other places
2:20
in Europe , and so they get together
2:22
, but not
2:24
often enough , right ? Yeah
2:26
, well , that sounds like fan-span-span-span
2:29
. Yeah , yeah , yeah .
2:32
Well , today we're going to talk about something that you're pretty passionate
2:35
about and a topic
2:37
that I believe that everybody
2:40
should not
2:42
just know about , but maybe learn a few
2:44
easy techniques that
2:46
we can take away not only for ourselves
2:48
as leaders , but also as
2:51
we work with our clients
2:53
and whatnot . So we're going to talk
2:55
about mindfulness , and
2:57
so when we think about mindfulness
3:00
it's a word that I know that I hear
3:02
a lot , but I don't necessarily
3:04
know what mindfulness
3:06
is in the broad
3:09
sense . So is that something that maybe you can
3:11
bring to light for us ?
3:13
today . Yeah , yeah , thanks for asking
3:15
. It's interesting
3:17
because you know I've
3:19
been working with mindfulness for so long
3:21
now and because it's become so popular
3:23
. I actually think that everybody knows what
3:25
it is and it's
3:27
true , people have heard about it but they don't really
3:30
know what it is . So , in
3:32
simple terms , you know there
3:36
is let's just take a picture of
3:38
the iceberg right , if we use that a lot
3:40
in leadership , so like
3:42
the Titanic , with the Titanic , okay
3:45
, they didn't see what was underneath
3:48
the water , and
3:50
so as human beings , we
3:53
have such
3:55
a vast inner experience
3:59
and what goes on with inner ? So
4:01
mindfulness is a lot around actually
4:03
learning about
4:06
our inner experience , being
4:08
present to our inner experience , so
4:10
whether that's our thoughts , our feelings
4:13
, our sensations in
4:15
our body . So the practices all help
4:17
us to connect with ourselves , because
4:20
whenever we stress out , it's often because
4:22
we separated right , we
4:25
separate from ourselves , and then that
4:27
leads to stress . So it's about our inner
4:29
experience , but then it also expands
4:31
out and zooms out to
4:34
the outer experience and what's going
4:36
on around me , and so
4:38
it's actually so fascinating .
4:41
Thank you for sharing . Yeah , and
4:44
it sounds like when I , when I heard you say that you
4:46
know you've been , mindfulness
4:49
has been a part of you for a long time
4:51
, you know , and now it's kind of coming to light for a lot
4:53
of people . How did you start
4:55
stepping into mindfulness ? What did that look
4:57
like for you ?
4:58
Yeah , so
5:01
that was about two decades
5:04
ago when I had
5:06
two young kids at home . I was a leader
5:08
in high tech in a software company
5:10
quite a big , global one and
5:13
I was really great at my work
5:15
. I loved it . I
5:17
was like the super woman , super
5:19
leader , and I would go to work
5:22
lots of stress because , you
5:24
know , we were navigating also
5:27
different time zones , working
5:29
with APEC , working with email , working
5:31
with the Americas , and
5:33
I used to come home at night to two
5:35
small kids and I
5:38
didn't have any patients left within
5:40
me , and
5:42
so there was
5:44
such a difference between
5:46
day and night , between how was it work
5:49
and how was it home , and
5:51
I didn't say I hated myself
5:53
, but I was ashamed
5:56
. I was ashamed and
5:58
I suffered a lot within me . Remember , I said
6:00
mindfulness is all about , like , what's
6:02
going on within you . On the outside
6:04
, everybody saw this lovely
6:07
, you know , people think I'm sweet and I'm , you
6:09
know , I'm always smiling , so people
6:11
think I'm calm and relaxed . But within
6:14
I was , you
6:16
know this perfectionist
6:19
, trying to get everything done , and I went home
6:21
and I didn't have patients for my kids . I
6:23
shouted at them , you know
6:25
, bathing and everything
6:27
was just a chore , and so I
6:29
knew something had to change , and
6:32
so when I actually came
6:35
to mindfulness , my
6:38
life really turned around
6:40
, but it took time . It's not like a magic pole
6:42
. It takes time and it takes practice , and I'm going to I'd
6:45
like to show one or two of the practices
6:47
that I do with
6:49
myself , even today , and with my clients . We'll
6:52
share that today , for sure .
6:55
Excellent ? Yeah , because I'm definitely and
6:58
I think everybody is , because when
7:00
we think about mindfulness , it's like , oh
7:02
, do we have to like go through
7:05
? You know a course
7:07
and I know that you have some amazing courses
7:09
. But I believe that when we talk before
7:12
and we'll get to this later that there's
7:14
some things that people can do , like you said
7:16
in the moment . And your
7:18
story about being
7:20
a parent and working and coming
7:22
home , I think that resonates with a
7:25
lot of the listeners . I remember
7:27
when my mom was a elementary
7:30
school teacher . She used to come
7:32
home and we knew she needed and
7:35
she would say this I need just five minutes and
7:37
she would go on the floor , she'd put her feet up
7:39
on the sofa and
7:42
she would . We knew that we needed
7:45
to give her those five minutes
7:47
so she can transition from
7:49
her work to her home , and
7:52
I think that that's important to be
7:54
recognizing that , those positive
7:56
, absolutely .
7:57
Yeah , yeah , so I
8:00
like what you're saying . First , it's lovely
8:02
that your mom had that practice and
8:04
you have the practice of prayer , which you bring
8:06
in , and it's that really easily
8:08
accessible . So
8:10
a lot of us
8:12
actually already have practices
8:14
that we're doing that are mindfulness practices
8:17
, and what I say is that we
8:19
need to up those . We need to actually increase
8:21
even more so because life
8:23
is becoming more and more demanding and
8:26
complex and stressful , so
8:28
it really is helpful to just
8:30
have more things that we
8:32
can add in . That just brings
8:35
us back to present , that just brings down
8:37
the stress just one little notch . Yeah
8:41
, so your mom is brilliant . That was excellent
8:43
, yeah .
8:46
Yeah , yeah , she's like the
8:48
first leader in
8:52
my life Great
8:54
.
8:54
Great , wonderful
8:56
, wonderful .
8:58
Well , let's talk a little bit about you
9:00
. Have the ACT model Chief
9:03
, collaborate and thrive and I'm really interested
9:05
in learning more about
9:07
that and how you use that .
9:10
Yeah , yeah . So the
9:12
ACT model first of all , the acronym
9:14
ACT comes about
9:16
because mindfulness is
9:18
an act . It's anything but passive . So
9:22
some of the listeners may be a
9:24
bit familiar with mindfulness . There are different
9:26
ways to practice it . You can
9:28
practice it through meditation , right
9:30
, so
9:32
you can do vipassana meditation
9:35
, where you sit and you drop into silence
9:37
and you do a silence meditation
9:40
. Yoga is a form of meditation
9:43
, tai Chi is a form of movement meditation
9:45
, and there's lots of meditation
9:47
practices that you can do to
9:49
practice and become more mindful . So
9:51
this increases your ability
9:54
to be more mindful and it's actually a mindfulness
9:56
practice . What I specialize
9:59
in is what
10:02
we call informal practices , like
10:04
, for example , a
10:07
practice that you would do before you go into a meeting
10:09
. So let's see how this fits into
10:11
the ACT model . So the ACT model is
10:15
called ACT because you need to do something
10:17
. It's not passive
10:19
, it's actually well
10:21
, it's not easy , it's quite simple
10:23
, but you need to set aside
10:25
time . And so ACT stands
10:28
for achieve , which is all about
10:30
me and myself . And how can I achieve more
10:32
? Connect , what
10:36
are the things I can do when I'm in my one-on-one
10:38
relationships , and the T is
10:40
for thrive how we can move
10:43
out of our ego , where we get hurt and
10:45
triggered and upset with
10:48
people and move from our me
10:51
mentality to the we mentality
10:53
. So that's a little bit about the ACT
10:55
model and the ACT framework forms part
10:57
of the book that I wrote . It
10:59
forms part of also the
11:02
course , the online course actually
11:04
two online courses that I've created
11:07
.
11:08
Let's talk while we're right there . Let's
11:11
talk a little bit about those courses
11:13
, because there are more .
11:15
Yeah .
11:16
Yeah .
11:17
So maybe , instead of talking
11:19
about the courses , I want to actually
11:21
give examples , if it's okay with
11:23
you , of few different
11:25
clients that are using
11:27
the model and they're
11:30
using the course as well . So
11:32
, and what's changed with them ? And maybe we'll drop
11:34
into already an
11:36
exercise . Yeah , that
11:41
, if we can already practice . So , so
11:45
I'm going to integrate everything together , because
11:47
that's what laughs about . You know , the
11:50
leaders that are coach say to me they don't
11:52
have time and everything you have to make
11:54
the time . So I'm going to show you how
11:56
easy it is . Let's maybe do
11:58
, like , actually start with something really
12:00
simple , that's 30 seconds
12:03
, and then maybe a bit later in the conversation
12:05
will challenge people a little bit more
12:07
, to do a little bit more than 30 seconds . Okay
12:10
, sounds good . So the
12:12
first thing we can do and , of course
12:15
, if any of the listeners are driving you're
12:17
going to , you can be listening , but don't
12:19
close your eyes , right , right
12:21
, okay . So , the
12:23
idea is to pause everything you're doing , except
12:26
for , of course , if you're driving and
12:29
just try and sit up straight , right
12:31
, and we're going to just drop into
12:34
silence and the first thing we're
12:36
going to do I'll have to always close my eyes , because
12:38
then I go into my inner world and then I
12:40
just take three breaths , just
12:43
breathing in life and breathing out tension
12:46
. So
12:50
it's nice to actually give an audible outbreath
12:52
, so breathing in life and
12:55
breathing out any tension , and
12:59
one more and
13:04
just simply ask yourself how am
13:06
I right now ? How
13:11
am I ? And
13:17
that's it . We're going to end this small
13:20
, mind-filling query . So I always like
13:22
to end with a thank you . So thank yourself for
13:24
taking these few seconds to drop
13:26
into silence and ask yourself how
13:28
you am , how you are . It's
13:31
a time for introspection
13:33
and also a time for healing
13:35
, and
13:38
when you really open your eyes and come
13:40
back .
13:42
No relaxing , yeah yeah , and
13:46
for me , I felt . I
13:48
felt in my back . I have an area
13:50
in my back and it was really present during
13:53
that moment . I
13:56
could feel a little bit of the pressure
13:58
.
13:59
Yeah .
14:00
My back , although I was yeah . Yeah , but
14:03
it's something that I probably wouldn't have noticed
14:05
if I wasn't Right .
14:07
Exactly , that's exactly the
14:09
point . So the
14:11
fact of the matter is that we are
14:13
, instead of being human beings
14:16
, we really are human doings . So
14:18
we walk around on automatic pilot
14:20
, we're very busy doing because that's
14:22
a high value , and
14:24
definitely in the United States of
14:27
doing , doing , doing , execution , execution
14:29
. And so we
14:31
don't spend enough time being and
14:33
just dropping into stillness for
14:36
, you know , literally 30 seconds
14:38
you can just check in with yourself and
14:42
you know if a child would fall on
14:44
the streets , even if that child
14:46
isn't yours , you would probably see if somebody
14:48
is looking after that child and , and
14:50
you know , you would go up and be concerned
14:53
and if the mother was there
14:55
, they would , you know , maybe put
14:57
their , put her the mum . The mum would
14:59
put her hand on the child and
15:01
see what they can do . And we don't do
15:03
that to ourselves . So
15:07
when you
15:09
drop into that silence and you notice
15:11
, like I say , something in the body remember I
15:13
said , mindfulness is about noticing your emotions
15:16
, your thoughts , feelings
15:19
in the body and so you notice something
15:21
, even like something that's maybe it
15:23
could be painful , it could be you
15:25
know , something , I don't
15:27
know just go there for a minute and
15:29
be there like befriended , breathing
15:33
to that space and then carry
15:35
on with your last . That's it . So
15:37
simple . That's
15:40
how you can actually heal yourself as well
15:43
.
15:43
Yeah
15:45
, and
15:48
this just came to mind , and I'm not sure
15:50
how like
15:52
when I think of mindfulness and I think of reflection
15:55
, are
15:57
they one in the same or is
15:59
there a difference there ?
16:03
Yeah , that's brilliant . So the mindfulness
16:06
is more the awareness piece . So
16:08
mindfulness is simply being
16:11
aware , but it's being
16:13
aware with a certain quality . That's
16:16
what the Course you asked me to tell you a little bit about
16:18
the Course . So the Course
16:20
goes into those qualities
16:22
of what kind of awareness I'm bringing
16:24
. Like , let's say
16:26
, with the leaders that we're
16:28
working , we want to help them to bring
16:31
out the quality of trust we
16:34
want them to be more curious
16:36
and open on psychological safety
16:38
. So mindfulness helps
16:40
you be intentional by actually
16:44
bringing that into your awareness and
16:46
almost like programming your brain
16:48
. I'm going to go into that meeting now . I'd
16:51
like to bring curiosity into that
16:53
meeting . I want to be open
16:55
, I want to be listening . So
16:58
first of all , being aware
17:00
and then the
17:03
reflection piece sits on top of that
17:05
. So
17:08
, for example , journaling is a mindfulness
17:10
practice . So you journal
17:13
and then the reflection , you
17:15
start learning about yourself and through that
17:17
you can great change .
17:20
I'm going hand in hand with those two . That's
17:25
awesome when you work with
17:27
leaders and teams and
17:29
you're doing this exercise . What
17:32
is the typical response
17:35
if it's something that is foreign
17:38
to them ?
17:41
Yeah , I'm smiling . I
17:43
saw that yeah
17:46
, so I do pay
17:49
. I put pay everybody I
17:51
work with . So
17:53
I don't work with disease I
17:55
don't know if you use that term in
17:58
the United States . I
18:00
work with people who want to radically
18:03
change , who want to transform , and
18:05
so they're willing to go the extra mile and put
18:07
in the effort . So you do need
18:10
to be courageous and
18:12
you do need to know that it's going to be uncomfortable
18:14
, so
18:16
to push through the discomfort
18:19
. So I do have leaders that forget
18:21
that I tell them this and then they say you know
18:23
that was hard . I said , oh , yes
18:25
, yes , it's hard , it's
18:28
easy and hard at the same time
18:30
, because the results
18:33
don't come immediately . You
18:35
have to be patient that the results come
18:37
when you practice in time . It's
18:39
like if you go to the job and
18:42
you practice anything
18:45
in life , it's how much you put in
18:47
. Usually it's what you get out . So
18:50
we do want that the
18:53
80 , 20 , the Pareto principle
18:55
, where we do want to invest in
18:57
the things that actually work for us , that
18:59
are right for us , that we invest 20%
19:02
and get 80% outcome from it
19:04
.
19:07
And that makes sense . The more that it's
19:09
practice because it is a practice
19:11
the more it's practice
19:14
, the stronger someone will be
19:16
meaning to me that
19:18
it will just be top of mind that this is what I
19:20
do .
19:23
Exactly so that it becomes part of your
19:25
structure , of your day , part of your
19:27
routine . So
19:29
you know , I'm very pro
19:31
having a morning routine , having a night routine
19:33
, having healthy habits
19:36
, mindful habits that you have
19:38
during the day . So there are many things
19:40
you could be doing , yeah .
19:42
Let's hear them .
19:43
Yeah , so so you know the exercise
19:46
that we did before that . We sat
19:48
down , we dropped into silence and
19:50
we asked how I am . So I have a
19:52
lot of clients that have ADHD
19:55
or any way . They're on their ass
19:57
bum excuse my language for too
19:59
many hours . So what they
20:02
need to do is get up and
20:04
go and get a glass of water . They
20:06
get a glass of water every time they get
20:08
up and they go get something to drink or coffee . They
20:10
can ask themselves how am I
20:12
Walk
20:15
a little bit more slowly ? There's something
20:17
called mindful walking . I've got a video
20:20
on that on my YouTube channel . So
20:22
you walk a little bit more
20:24
mindfully . Instead of thinking of your
20:26
next meeting , you focus
20:28
on your body . So
20:31
you get in out of your head , because you know too much
20:33
in our head . So for
20:35
people that are thinking , thinking , thinking
20:37
all the time , we need a break from it . So
20:40
it's you purposely need
20:42
to bring your awareness . So let's say , your awareness
20:45
is there , you want to bring it ? Yeah
20:47
, it's there , I want to bring it
20:49
, yeah , yeah
20:52
, Into the body and just
20:54
walking a little bit more slowly . And you
20:56
know what , in the beginning you feel
20:58
stupid . It does seem stupid
21:00
, like
21:03
you know , like almost like a robot
21:05
walking or whatever , like a model walking , but whatever
21:07
, like what is this , you know , and you laugh at
21:09
yourself and that's also okay . But
21:12
when you do it time and time again
21:14
, it's actually bringing attention to yourself
21:16
and taking your mind
21:19
for those few seconds off
21:21
the thinking brain . That's either worrying
21:23
. Thinking in the future , thinking
21:25
in the past , thinking what I need to do now
21:27
, and you're like
21:30
feeding yourself , like what's going on within
21:32
me right now . Come
21:34
into the present moment .
21:39
What are some of your practices Like
21:42
as a practitioner , what do you
21:44
practice ?
21:46
Yeah .
21:46
Dang . What does that look like ?
21:48
Yes , maybe . What about practice today
21:50
already ? Yeah , yeah
21:52
, so
21:55
I pray in the morning
21:57
I have a short
22:00
prayer where you know
22:02
, it doesn't
22:04
matter whether you believe in Christ or you believe
22:06
in God , or who you believe in , but there
22:08
is , if you believe that there
22:10
is a higher power . So
22:12
just bring , you know , thankfulness
22:15
, bring gratitude . Gratitude , by the way
22:17
, is a mindful attitude , remember , I told
22:19
you that there's these mindful attitudes . That's what the
22:21
course is about the quality . So
22:24
I'm practicing gratitude . I bring gratitude
22:26
in . Then I woke up this morning . You
22:30
know , thank you God for waking up and
22:33
it's a little hymn that I
22:35
sing and thank
22:37
you God , thank you God for you know
22:40
, for this break that I have and that
22:42
I can go through my day . So I start
22:44
off my day with that . So
22:47
that's gratitude and grace , practicing
22:49
that . And then , if I'm in
22:51
meetings , I will
22:53
. If
22:55
I'm in meetings , I will always practice mindfulness
22:58
in my meetings , like , whoever
23:00
works with me gets to practice mindfulness
23:02
. So I get to benefit because I
23:04
practice it with them , right , and
23:07
in a few minutes we can take a break . If you want , we
23:09
can practice something a little bit different but similar
23:11
to what we did before . So
23:16
I've done that a couple of times today as
23:18
well . I had a new client so I didn't
23:20
scare him off the first
23:23
time so I didn't practice with him . But truthfully
23:25
, my clients actually asked me to practice
23:27
mindfulness . Can we do that thing again ? That
23:30
is terrific . Yeah
23:34
. So today I went for a
23:36
walk in the morning and
23:38
then what I like to do is sometimes pause , because
23:41
it's nice to pause when your heart's racing
23:43
and then connect with your body and you feel
23:46
your blood pumping and you feel
23:48
your body . So it's nice just to do that as well . So
23:51
I experiment all the time . I love experimenting
23:53
, so I'll do that when I walk . Sometimes they'll
23:55
sit down
23:58
, I'll look at the view . So
24:00
look at the view and you immerse
24:02
yourself in what's going
24:05
on around you . So , as I said , people , if
24:07
you're listening and you do this already yes
24:10
, you have mini mindfulness
24:12
practices and you can add
24:14
to that . So , for
24:16
example , if I'm walking today , I
24:18
went and sat at a spot where I could see the whole
24:20
view of my village and there's forest all around
24:23
. So what's beautiful about that
24:25
is it invites in awe . You see
24:27
the clouds , you see the greenery
24:29
, you see laughs and
24:32
awe . Actually it's not a mindfulness
24:35
trait , but it's actually one of the
24:37
emotions that bring
24:39
in positive that . Barbara
24:41
Fredrickson , if you know her work , she
24:44
studied positive emotions
24:46
and so awe is one of them . So
24:49
what I like to do , I use mindfulness
24:51
to invite in positive
24:55
emotions . So that's awe , for example
24:58
. Awe is like when you just sit and watch
25:00
the rain or
25:02
something that's much bigger than you inviting
25:05
awe , and so what's nice about that ? It gets
25:07
you out of like the me and
25:09
into the thrive part , the we , and
25:11
being part of being connected with the
25:13
universe . Yeah
25:16
, so I can give you more examples
25:19
of what I do . I'm just going to pause
25:21
a minute go in a roll .
25:24
That is that is for
25:26
me . Prayer is is part
25:29
of my mindfulness and I
25:31
love that you brought that up , but I
25:33
also love the fact that
25:35
there are things that people are already
25:37
doing and maybe not recognizing
25:40
that they're mindful .
25:41
Yeah , yeah . So
25:43
one of my teachers , kelly , is
25:46
John Kabat-San , and
25:48
I really I have goosebumps
25:50
. I can just give thanks to John Kabat-San
25:52
because he's
25:54
he's a mentor . He really believes
25:57
in bringing in these moments of
25:59
mindfulness into your day . Not
26:01
everybody needs to sit on a cushion and meditate
26:04
. Not everybody's ready for that right now , and
26:06
if you're not , then there
26:08
are many ways to practice being mindful
26:10
and the the benefits
26:13
of it . I mean , there's so much science
26:15
today . It's totally
26:17
backed up by science and evidence . So
26:20
I've got ADHD , so I've just
26:22
I've lost track of why I'm telling you
26:24
this . Okay , what
26:27
was your question ?
26:29
Well , we were talking about how
26:32
mindfulness practices
26:34
people . They may , they
26:36
are recognizing because they're already doing it
26:38
.
26:38
Yes , that there are yeah , yeah , yeah
26:41
, yeah , yeah , yeah . He
26:46
is so pro also bringing it into
26:48
your day and of course , he meditates
26:50
, so he'll sit . I'll go through
26:52
times where I'll sit and I'll meditate
26:55
. Today I
26:57
did a 10 minute meditation where
26:59
I just lay on my floor
27:02
in my office room , actually behind me right
27:04
here now , because this is this is my real background
27:07
. So I like to
27:09
lie , put a cushion and I like
27:11
to lie down and meditate . I
27:14
always say I don't fall asleep
27:16
, but if you fall asleep , then that's what you
27:18
need . We so hard
27:20
on ourselves and we push ourselves so
27:22
much . So another quality
27:24
of mindfulness is non-straving . What
27:27
does that mean ? It means to give yourself
27:29
a break and you don't have to push , push , push
27:32
all the time . It's mindfulness
27:34
is like an invitation . It's an invitation
27:36
of being in the world , and
27:39
so it's a much . It's
27:42
a much better way , I think , of being in the
27:44
world than you know . Like I'm a perfectionist
27:47
, so my natural default
27:49
is to push myself to
27:52
perfect and
27:54
be doing more and more . So
27:56
what ? Mindfulness has given me that polar
27:59
strength of balancing out this . You
28:02
know this drive within me to
28:04
actually balance me out and say , hey , there
28:07
, it's okay to take a break . It's
28:09
okay to lie down on the floor for 10 minutes
28:12
.
28:12
Yes , and
28:18
it's okay . And when you talked
28:20
about if you
28:22
fall asleep , it's okay . It
28:25
reminds me of
28:27
when I was doing
28:29
yoga , like going to yoga classes
28:32
, and at the end you know
28:34
, laying down , and then I'd hear myself
28:36
all of a sudden a little snort
28:38
like yeah , yeah
28:41
, yeah , yeah , so relaxed
28:43
, yeah , yeah , and that's okay
28:46
.
28:47
Absolutely , and I think that everybody
28:50
must find what works for them . So
28:52
if yoga works for them , then
28:55
go to yoga , because it's we
28:57
all need to move our bodies , so
29:00
there's a lot of ways you can practice mindfulness
29:02
and move your body . What's very
29:04
interesting about yoga ? For example
29:07
I don't know if there's some people that are listening to us
29:09
that have practiced yoga before you
29:11
can be practicing yoga and thinking about
29:13
your to-do list or
29:16
thinking about your next meeting or planning
29:18
right , while you're practicing
29:20
yoga . Now , if you aren't , then brilliant
29:23
. But this is what I could be doing
29:25
, because I'm always like I need to
29:27
be prepared . So the mindfulness
29:29
practice would be coming back
29:31
into the body , coming back into the body
29:33
every time , like feeling those
29:36
movements . So yoga
29:38
is about your focus on the body and
29:41
there , too , there's discomfort because
29:44
you know you push yourself . In yoga , it's
29:48
something also that looks like it could
29:50
be easy , but it's so difficult . The
29:52
moves , yes
29:54
, yeah , for sure
29:56
, but relaxed and strengthening
29:59
. Yeah , yeah , yeah
30:01
, yeah . So
30:04
I actually wanted to
30:06
read the definition of mindfulness
30:09
from the book that I wrote with Jonathan Pascas
30:11
. Oh , please do . Yeah
30:13
, yeah , yeah
30:16
. So what we wrote is that
30:19
mindfulness is a state of mind , and
30:21
this has been proven . People have also
30:23
, like everybody has , we
30:25
all have a mindfulness trait , and
30:27
we want to increase this . We want to become more
30:29
mindfulness . It's also a state of mind
30:31
and a way of being that
30:35
, when cultivated regularly which is what
30:37
we've been talking about the whole way through promotes
30:40
an inclusive , accepting
30:42
and authentic experience
30:44
of the present moment .
30:48
Be tuned for part two and conversations
30:50
with Samantha , amit and mindfulness
30:52
.
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