WEBVTT 00:00:00.481 --> 00:00:03.049 We live in an incredibly busy world. 00:00:03.073 --> 00:00:06.570 The pace of life is often frantic, our minds are always busy, 00:00:06.594 --> 00:00:08.341 and we're always doing something. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:08.795 --> 00:00:11.487 So with that in mind, I'd like you just to take a moment 00:00:11.511 --> 00:00:16.101 to think, when did you last take any time to do nothing? 00:00:16.819 --> 00:00:19.046 Just 10 minutes, undisturbed? 00:00:19.348 --> 00:00:21.601 And when I say nothing, I do mean nothing. 00:00:21.625 --> 00:00:24.221 So that's no emailing, texting, no Internet, 00:00:24.245 --> 00:00:27.021 no TV, no chatting, no eating, no reading. 00:00:28.303 --> 00:00:30.589 Not even sitting there reminiscing about the past 00:00:30.613 --> 00:00:31.977 or planning for the future. 00:00:32.754 --> 00:00:35.374 Simply doing nothing. 00:00:36.440 --> 00:00:37.999 I see a lot of very blank faces. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:38.023 --> 00:00:39.024 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:39.048 --> 00:00:40.967 You probably have to go a long way back. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:40.991 --> 00:00:42.999 And this is an extraordinary thing, right? 00:00:43.023 --> 00:00:44.445 We're talking about our mind. 00:00:45.143 --> 00:00:48.407 The mind, our most valuable and precious resource, 00:00:48.431 --> 00:00:51.470 through which we experience every single moment of our life. 00:00:52.447 --> 00:00:54.599 The mind that we rely upon 00:00:54.623 --> 00:00:59.097 to be happy, content, emotionally stable as individuals, 00:00:59.121 --> 00:01:01.501 and at the same time, to be kind and thoughtful 00:01:01.525 --> 00:01:04.675 and considerate in our relationships with others. 00:01:05.249 --> 00:01:07.337 This is the same mind that we depend upon 00:01:07.361 --> 00:01:10.833 to be focused, creative, spontaneous, 00:01:10.857 --> 00:01:14.531 and to perform at our very best in everything that we do. 00:01:14.912 --> 00:01:18.512 And yet, we don't take any time out to look after it. 00:01:19.013 --> 00:01:22.026 In fact, we spend more time looking after our cars, 00:01:22.050 --> 00:01:24.033 our clothes and our hair than we -- 00:01:24.057 --> 00:01:25.304 okay, maybe not our hair, NOTE Paragraph 00:01:25.328 --> 00:01:26.329 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:26.353 --> 00:01:27.803 but you see where I'm going. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:28.127 --> 00:01:30.480 The result, of course, is that we get stressed. 00:01:30.814 --> 00:01:33.539 You know, the mind whizzes away like a washing machine 00:01:33.563 --> 00:01:36.955 going round and round, lots of difficult, confusing emotions, 00:01:36.979 --> 00:01:41.011 and we don't really know how to deal with that. 00:01:42.312 --> 00:01:45.780 And the sad fact is that we are so distracted 00:01:45.804 --> 00:01:49.600 that we're no longer present in the world in which we live. 00:01:50.359 --> 00:01:53.667 We miss out on the things that are most important to us, 00:01:53.691 --> 00:01:56.098 and the crazy thing is that everybody just assumes, 00:01:56.122 --> 00:01:59.461 that's the way life is, so we've just kind of got to get on with it. 00:01:59.485 --> 00:02:01.264 That's really not how it has to be. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:05.684 So I was about 11 when I went along to my first meditation class. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:09.359 And trust me, it had all the stereotypes that you can imagine, 00:02:09.383 --> 00:02:11.754 the sitting cross-legged on the floor, 00:02:11.778 --> 00:02:15.153 the incense, the herbal tea, the vegetarians, the whole deal, 00:02:15.177 --> 00:02:18.946 but my mom was going and I was intrigued, so I went along with her. 00:02:18.970 --> 00:02:20.951 I'd also seen a few kung fu movies, 00:02:20.975 --> 00:02:24.321 and secretly I kind of thought I might be able to learn how to fly, 00:02:24.345 --> 00:02:26.443 but I was very young at the time. 00:02:27.059 --> 00:02:30.146 Now as I was there, I guess, like a lot of people, 00:02:30.170 --> 00:02:33.810 I assumed that it was just an aspirin for the mind. 00:02:33.834 --> 00:02:35.787 You get stressed, you do some meditation. 00:02:35.811 --> 00:02:39.632 I hadn't really thought that it could be sort of preventative in nature, 00:02:39.656 --> 00:02:43.291 until I was about 20, when a number of things happened in my life 00:02:43.315 --> 00:02:45.725 in quite quick succession, 00:02:45.749 --> 00:02:49.192 really serious things which just flipped my life upside down 00:02:49.216 --> 00:02:52.114 and all of a sudden I was inundated with thoughts, 00:02:52.138 --> 00:02:55.695 inundated with difficult emotions that I didn't know how to cope with. 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:57.735 Every time I sort of pushed one down, 00:02:57.759 --> 00:02:59.560 another one would pop back up again. 00:02:59.584 --> 00:03:01.395 It was a really very stressful time. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:01.820 --> 00:03:05.095 I guess we all deal with stress in different ways. 00:03:06.138 --> 00:03:10.188 Some people will bury themselves in work, grateful for the distraction. 00:03:10.748 --> 00:03:14.034 Others will turn to their friends, their family, looking for support. 00:03:14.058 --> 00:03:17.274 Some people hit the bottle, start taking medication. 00:03:17.952 --> 00:03:20.484 My own way of dealing with it was to become a monk. 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:24.633 So I quit my degree, I headed off to the Himalayas, 00:03:24.657 --> 00:03:27.396 I became a monk, and I started studying meditation. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:28.173 --> 00:03:32.210 People often ask me what I learned from that time. 00:03:32.234 --> 00:03:34.446 Well, obviously it changed things. 00:03:34.470 --> 00:03:38.460 Let's face it, becoming a celibate monk is going to change a number of things. 00:03:38.484 --> 00:03:40.732 But it was more than that. 00:03:41.064 --> 00:03:44.379 It taught me -- it gave me a greater appreciation, 00:03:44.403 --> 00:03:47.625 an understanding for the present moment. 00:03:48.062 --> 00:03:51.998 By that I mean not being lost in thought, 00:03:52.022 --> 00:03:53.834 not being distracted, 00:03:53.858 --> 00:03:57.649 not being overwhelmed by difficult emotions, 00:03:57.673 --> 00:04:01.202 but instead learning how to be in the here and now, 00:04:01.226 --> 00:04:03.577 how to be mindful, how to be present. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:04.160 --> 00:04:07.159 I think the present moment is so underrated. 00:04:07.625 --> 00:04:09.388 It sounds so ordinary, 00:04:09.412 --> 00:04:13.107 and yet we spend so little time in the present moment 00:04:13.131 --> 00:04:15.472 that it's anything but ordinary. 00:04:15.496 --> 00:04:19.281 There was a research paper that came out of Harvard, just recently, 00:04:19.305 --> 00:04:22.071 that said on average, our minds are lost in thought 00:04:22.095 --> 00:04:24.458 almost 47 percent of the time. 00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:26.381 47 percent. 00:04:27.127 --> 00:04:29.976 At the same time, this sort of constant mind-wandering 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.635 is also a direct cause of unhappiness. 00:04:32.659 --> 00:04:37.703 Now we're not here for that long anyway, 00:04:37.727 --> 00:04:41.929 but to spend almost half of our life lost in thought 00:04:41.953 --> 00:04:43.935 and potentially quite unhappy, 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:46.632 I don't know, it just kind of seems tragic, actually, 00:04:46.656 --> 00:04:49.589 especially when there's something we can do about it, 00:04:49.613 --> 00:04:53.237 when there's a positive, practical, achievable, 00:04:53.261 --> 00:04:56.221 scientifically proven technique 00:04:56.245 --> 00:04:58.447 which allows our mind to be more healthy, 00:04:58.471 --> 00:05:02.075 to be more mindful and less distracted. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:02.619 --> 00:05:05.014 And the beauty of it is that even though 00:05:05.038 --> 00:05:07.413 it need only take about 10 minutes a day, 00:05:07.437 --> 00:05:10.157 it impacts our entire life. 00:05:11.195 --> 00:05:12.891 But we need to know how to do it. 00:05:12.915 --> 00:05:14.151 We need an exercise. 00:05:14.175 --> 00:05:17.293 We need a framework to learn how to be more mindful. 00:05:17.317 --> 00:05:19.216 That's essentially what meditation is. 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:21.731 It's familiarizing ourselves with the present moment. 00:05:21.755 --> 00:05:24.786 But we also need to know how to approach it in the right way 00:05:24.810 --> 00:05:26.183 to get the best from it. 00:05:26.691 --> 00:05:29.637 And that's what these are for, in case you've been wondering, 00:05:29.661 --> 00:05:31.898 because most people assume 00:05:31.922 --> 00:05:34.653 that meditation is all about stopping thoughts, 00:05:34.677 --> 00:05:37.714 getting rid of emotions, somehow controlling the mind, 00:05:37.738 --> 00:05:39.912 but actually it's quite different from that. 00:05:40.338 --> 00:05:42.699 It's more about stepping back, 00:05:42.723 --> 00:05:45.059 sort of seeing the thought clearly, 00:05:45.083 --> 00:05:47.798 witnessing it coming and going, emotions coming and going 00:05:47.822 --> 00:05:52.799 without judgment, but with a relaxed, focused mind. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:53.462 --> 00:05:55.573 So for example, right now, 00:05:55.597 --> 00:05:58.034 if I focus too much on the balls, 00:05:58.058 --> 00:06:01.185 then there's no way I can relax and talk to you at the same time. 00:06:01.209 --> 00:06:03.313 Equally, if I relax too much talking to you, 00:06:03.337 --> 00:06:05.243 there's no way I can focus on the balls. 00:06:05.267 --> 00:06:06.449 I'm going to drop them. 00:06:06.473 --> 00:06:09.091 Now in life, and in meditation, 00:06:09.115 --> 00:06:12.511 there'll be times when the focus becomes a little bit too intense, 00:06:12.535 --> 00:06:16.518 and life starts to feel a bit like this. 00:06:16.542 --> 00:06:18.679 It's a very uncomfortable way to live life, 00:06:18.703 --> 00:06:20.502 when you get this tight and stressed. 00:06:20.819 --> 00:06:24.300 At other times, we might take our foot off the gas a little bit too much, 00:06:24.324 --> 00:06:26.896 and things just become a sort of little bit like this. 00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:28.585 Of course in meditation -- NOTE Paragraph 00:06:28.609 --> 00:06:29.610 (Snores) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:29.634 --> 00:06:31.419 we're going to end up falling asleep. 00:06:31.443 --> 00:06:34.145 So we're looking for a balance, a focused relaxation 00:06:34.169 --> 00:06:37.181 where we can allow thoughts to come and go 00:06:37.205 --> 00:06:39.348 without all the usual involvement. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:39.938 --> 00:06:43.212 Now, what usually happens when we're learning to be mindful 00:06:43.236 --> 00:06:46.156 is that we get distracted by a thought. 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:47.952 Let's say this is an anxious thought. 00:06:47.976 --> 00:06:50.602 Everything's going fine, and we see the anxious thought. 00:06:50.626 --> 00:06:53.149 "Oh, I didn't realize I was worried about that." 00:06:53.173 --> 00:06:54.625 You go back to it, repeat it. 00:06:54.649 --> 00:06:55.812 "Oh, I am worried. 00:06:55.836 --> 00:06:58.271 I really am worried. Wow, there's so much anxiety." 00:06:58.295 --> 00:07:00.055 And before we know it, right, 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:03.017 we're anxious about feeling anxious. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:03.041 --> 00:07:04.049 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:04.073 --> 00:07:05.390 You know, this is crazy. 00:07:05.414 --> 00:07:08.553 We do this all the time, even on an everyday level. 00:07:08.577 --> 00:07:12.705 If you think about the last time you had a wobbly tooth. 00:07:13.880 --> 00:07:16.815 You know it's wobbly, and you know that it hurts. 00:07:17.200 --> 00:07:20.067 But what do you do every 20, 30 seconds? NOTE Paragraph 00:07:20.737 --> 00:07:22.618 (Mumbling) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:22.642 --> 00:07:23.811 It does hurt. 00:07:23.835 --> 00:07:26.380 And we reinforce the storyline, right? 00:07:26.404 --> 00:07:29.361 And we just keep telling ourselves, and we do it all the time. 00:07:29.385 --> 00:07:32.073 And it's only in learning to watch the mind in this way 00:07:32.097 --> 00:07:35.876 that we can start to let go of those storylines and patterns of mind. 00:07:36.529 --> 00:07:39.206 But when you sit down and you watch the mind in this way, 00:07:39.230 --> 00:07:41.085 you might see many different patterns. 00:07:41.109 --> 00:07:43.742 You might find a mind that's really restless and -- 00:07:43.766 --> 00:07:44.941 the whole time. 00:07:45.607 --> 00:07:48.757 Don't be surprised if you feel a bit agitated in your body 00:07:48.781 --> 00:07:52.067 when you sit down to do nothing and your mind feels like that. 00:07:52.542 --> 00:07:54.918 You might find a mind that's very dull 00:07:54.942 --> 00:07:57.254 and boring, and it's just, almost mechanical, 00:07:57.278 --> 00:08:00.457 it just seems it's as if you're getting up, going to work, 00:08:00.481 --> 00:08:02.280 eat, sleep, get up, work. 00:08:02.962 --> 00:08:05.462 Or it might just be that one little nagging thought 00:08:05.486 --> 00:08:09.837 that just goes round and round your mind. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:10.640 --> 00:08:11.982 Well, whatever it is, 00:08:12.006 --> 00:08:17.621 meditation offers the opportunity, the potential to step back 00:08:17.645 --> 00:08:20.159 and to get a different perspective, 00:08:20.183 --> 00:08:24.084 to see that things aren't always as they appear. 00:08:25.055 --> 00:08:30.769 We can't change every little thing that happens to us in life, 00:08:30.793 --> 00:08:34.200 but we can change the way that we experience it. 00:08:34.224 --> 00:08:37.937 That's the potential of meditation, of mindfulness. 00:08:37.961 --> 00:08:40.511 You don't have to burn any incense, 00:08:40.535 --> 00:08:42.916 and you definitely don't have to sit on the floor. 00:08:42.940 --> 00:08:46.829 All you need to do is to take 10 minutes out a day 00:08:46.853 --> 00:08:50.366 to step back, to familiarize yourself with the present moment 00:08:50.390 --> 00:08:53.052 so that you get to experience a greater sense 00:08:53.076 --> 00:08:57.023 of focus, calm and clarity in your life. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:57.487 --> 00:08:58.685 Thank you very much. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:58.709 --> 00:09:02.709 (Applause)