 Hey everyone, welcome. Give you a minute to get settled. Thanks for joining me on a Wednesday night, so close to a holiday in the US, right? So we'll be here for about 45 minutes. The beginning, I will use the time to share a technique with you and we'll practice a little bit together. And then you can ask me questions that might come up. So this class is actually part of a course that I'm teaching, which is a set of eight exercises to nurture career contentment. And career contentment is when you feel, well, everyone describes it differently. You know it when you have it. But really when you have a feeling of belonging and ease and joy in your career. And these are some exercises to comfort it and to nurture that. And so in the class, I teach eight different practices and this is the first one. But I wanted to share, yeah, to share it. It is a technique that you could walk away from tonight with, with this one technique and you could walk away with this one technique and it would be enough really to create a month on this practice for the rest of your life. And I'll even give you some ideas on how you can do that for yourself. Yeah, in the last, I've been meditating for about, I don't know, 15 years. And this one I will focus on for maybe a month. I think there was a time when every, I think I did it for three months straight, 30 minutes a day in this technique. And it's lovely because it's a great one for beginners, very accessible, but it also as you kind of deepen your practice and as you have some more tranquil experiences, it can support that as well. And it's a really easy one to take off the cushion, off the seat, it's one that you can bring into your work life too. So we're gonna do longer practice today and I'll give you some ideas on how you might use it in your work life. Okay, and so I'm gonna explain a little bit about how to do the process and then we'll do it. So this technique is called C here, feel. It was developed by Shenzhen Yang and the unified mindfulness system is based off of all of his teachings. Shenzhen's cool because he studied a lot of meditation and looked at all the different, religions and meditation styles and found what was common in each and realized that really what we're trying to develop is mindfulness and mindfulness is really three skills. It's concentration, so being able to concentrate on what you wanna concentrate on when you wanna concentrate on it, right? So focus, second, sensory clarity, so being aware of what sensory experiences we're having and it's kind of wild if you haven't done a practice like this of like, oh, all the things that we tune out, right? And that we're not aware of. And sometimes we don't need to be aware of everything, right? But sometimes we do and we find ourselves lost or missing out on things, cues from other people. And then the third skill it builds is equanimity, which is the ability to actually just be here in the present to not be wanting to be dreaming about the future or dwelling on the past but being right here right now with what's happening. What I think is really cool about those three skills is when I first learned about them, I went, well, those are the skills you need to be a great storyteller. If you wanna be a great storyteller, you need to be able to focus on what you wanna focus on when you wanna focus on it. Today, my daughter went to an audition at school and she said about halfway through the script, she's like, yeah, I just kind of zoned out and lost myself and I was like, yeah, a lot of people do that. They'll be doing a presentation, they'll be at an interview, they'll be in a networking conversation and you might even be talking, but your mind isn't there, right? So to be a great storyteller, to have concentration, to know where to put a strategic pause in the story and to know which parts you've already told and not get lost, super important. Not to say those filler words, right? You need concentration for that, sensory clarity. So you can be aware of what gestures your body is making, what you are feeling, but also being able to read other people, right? Because when we tell stories, we're not just telling stories too, you know? An audience that automatically loves us or we're just telling a story to one person and so we have to be aware of what's going on even with that other person and we can see that and feel that and hear that and equanimity, right? So being able to just be in the moment of the story, yeah, and accept if it flops or not, right? With grace, because storytellers tell, you know, but take risks. So these are skills that work for both feeling great in careers and for your storytelling terms. Okay, so this is how we do the method. Basically, we've got three areas where we can have sensory experiences. We can see things, right? So if you're in a room right now, well, you'll see me on the computer, but you can see things, you can hear things and you can feel them. And within those, we have an inner and an outer so we can see, you know, the room that we're in, the space that we're in, we can hear the room that we're in, the space that we're in and we can feel, you know, our bodies, you know, the ache in our foot, you know, the itch on our elbow. We can also have inner experiences of those and those inner experiences are actually the ones that affect our careers and affect our storytelling ability more than anything, I think. And so we all have, and maybe you wanna try and find it, we all have in terms of, see, we have a mental screen. So usually, if you close your eyes, you're looking for a blank screen that's either in front of or behind your eyes and you can see where yours is. And in a minute, we'll check and see if there's anything playing, you know, on that screen, but we have this mental screen where often we'll actually be playing out scenarios that happened before or imagining scenarios that are gonna happen and we're making movies in our minds and not even aware of it. So we're gonna see what's playing in our mental screen. We're gonna listen. We have an inside space, right? So usually it's around where your ears are and it's where you'll hear yourself talking to yourself. You might be replaying conversations. You might be planning conversations, but you have this inner talk space. And then we have the inner emotional space, right? So emotions that we can feel. So in this technique, we are going to pay attention to what we can see here and feel. First we'll go external, then we'll go internal. We'll do each one for a couple of minutes and then we'll come back as a group and you can ask me any questions that you have about it and I'll give you some tips on how you could use this in your day-to-day work life to feel a bit more content. Cool. So let's get ourselves first into a comfortable position. Generally a comfortable, like I don't know what you're sitting on, if you're sitting on a cushion, cool, that's great. If you're sitting on a chair, you, to support, best support this, I would invite you to bring your body towards the front of the chair so that your feet can be flat and let's lengthen our spine, lengthen your neck, almost like there's an invisible string that is pulling you up and then we're going to relax our forehead, relax the space behind your eyes, relax your jaw, relax your shoulders and we want to be in a position where we are alert, yeah, relaxed and we're gonna begin with C so I invite you to look around the room in which you're in or the space in which you're in and notice when something grabs your attention. So when there's an object that you go, oh yeah, that's what I wanna look at, just let your eyes find that and when they've found something that they've noticed, you're gonna note it, which is just noticing that, hey, my attention is on that and we're gonna label it C and a label is just, it helps build our concentration but we're gonna say the word C, either out loud or in our heads for as long as our focus is on that object and then if your attention gets pulled to another object that you see in the room, you'll stop, note it and label it C and when you're labeling, you can keep saying the label over and over again, so like this, my attention is drawn to a lamp right now, I'm noticing that I'm looking at the lamp and I'm gonna label it C, C, C, so like that. So look around the room that you're in and when you notice something, note it and label it and we'll go for two minutes and if you get distracted by sounds or other thoughts, just let that be in the background or I mean focus right now is noticing where your attention is drawn visually, noting that and labeling it C. You might be drawn from one object to another or focus on the same object the whole time. They all work, just use whatever is naturally happening. Beautiful, all right, let's move from that and that is called C out and you could use that as, you could do a whole 10 minute practice just on C out but let's move into here out, so now I invite you in for this one, you can close your eyes or open them, whatever works but what sounds do you hear in the room or space in which you're in, what do you hear? And when you notice a sound, note it and label it here and you can use a spoken label by repeating here in a matter of fact, even tone like this. Here, here, here. Or you can say it inside your head to yourself. What sounds do you hear in the space or room in which you're in and labeling it here and if there's no sound in the room or space that you're in, you can enjoy that. If you like the idea of using a label, you can label that rest and just pay attention to the nuances of quietness. Now let that go and we're gonna come to our bodies. So now pay attention and your eyes can be open or closed, whatever works for you. Pay attention to any sensations that you might be having in your body and when you notice them or notice it, label it feel. So it might be a pain in your hip, it might be relaxed shoulders. What do you notice within physical sensations you're noticing and when you notice them, note it and label it feel and try that for two minutes and it can be really subtle. It doesn't need to be a big, a big deal. Even a subtle feeling can be labeled feel and if you get pulled away by sights or sounds, let that be in the background and bring your focus to your physical body. Every time you bring yourself back to your object of focus, you're building concentration, so that's great. What do you feel, what physical sensations do you feel in your body? Label them feel. Beautiful, now I'll let that go and we're gonna move on into the inner space. So remember I said we have see, hear, feel, those three categories, but we have inner and outer, right? So we just did the outer, it's see out, hear out, feel out. Now we're gonna try see in. So I invite you to close your eyes and locate your mental screen and usually that's a blank screen that's in front of or behind your eyes and you're gonna notice if there's any images there and if you see an image on your mental screen, label it see. People just see kind of wiggly lines or pixelations or light, that doesn't count as see, that's just your mental screen. You can just enjoy the blank screen and if an image comes up, note it and label it see. We'll do this for another minute. See in and if you are hearing or feeling anything else, let that be in the background and bring your attention just to what is happening on your mental screen right now and you can let that go and now bring your attention to your inner talk space. So that space in between or close to your ears and notice if you hear any activity in that talk space so are you hearing yourself, talk to yourself, are you replaying any conversations and if you are, don't worry about the content. The content doesn't matter. Just notice that there's activity in that space and label it here. Let's go for two minutes. What's happening in our talk space and if there's nothing, that's great. Just enjoy that there's nothing there and if there's lots, that's great too. We'll label it here and if there's external sounds or thoughts, just let them be in the background and bring your focus to just paying attention to what's going on in that talk space. We're going to do the last exercise which is feel in. So now bring attention to your body and notice if you're feeling any emotions right now and if you are feeling any emotions, you can label those feel and you don't need to judge them. If you're feeling bored or challenged or annoyed or maybe you're feeling relaxed and happy, it doesn't matter what you're feeling. We're just labeling it feel and we'll go for a minute or two. Feel in and notice where it is in your body and notice if it stays still or if it moves and label it feel. Beautiful and I can open your eyes and come back to us. So I'll tell a little bit about the practice and how you might use it. So you could just, you could do this sequence as a 10 minute sequence, right? You could do see out and see in and hear out and hear in and feel out and feel in and you could do that for 10 minutes a day. Actually, I think the most recent science has said 12 minutes a day of mindfulness training will build those skills. But another study showed that if you did that just doing these exercises on the cushion and then not letting them influence anything in your life doesn't always change much. So another thing that you could think about if one of these was really easy for you to access like maybe see out or feel in was really accessible and you were like, yeah and you didn't get distracted at all. Think about where you could use that in your work day. So could you before, you know I don't know what you do for a living but before you make a phone call that you're stressful about or you're stressed about or before you do a presentation could you do a short practice of just a minute of see out or hear in, right? Oftentimes another technique that another way that you can do it is that if you're in a conversation with someone and you start to feel annoyed or like you might want to snap at them you could also just kind of go, hey what am I hearing? What am I, what's my self talk? Or what am I envisioning? What's my mental screen showing me? And notice if there's things that are popping up in that and instead of letting them rule your actions you know notice like, oh, see, see and you wouldn't say that out loud but think about some opportunities of weaving in either this whole practice or a part of this practice into your work day. What it builds, doing this practice on a daily basis doing those micro hits is it builds concentration sensory clarity and equanimity. I'll talk a little bit about that and then I'll, I want to answer your questions but the concentration, so if you were doing this I know when I first started I would be like, yes I can see an object and then I'd be thinking about something else and then I'd be reminded of, oh yeah you're supposed to be looking at something. Every time your mind wanders is actually great. Use it, it allows you to go no I want to be concentrating on here. And the more that happens some people judge that happening it's not like our brains are just doing what they're supposed to do. Every time you bring it back is an opportunity to build concentration skills. And every time you bring it back without judgment you're actually building equanimity. You're not getting distracted and then judging yourself about getting distracted and then telling yourself a story about you can't do this. If you just bring it back with no judgment you're building concentration, equanimity and then you build the sensory clarity because you start to be able to break up experiences in a way that they have less of a hold on you. Yeah, so we have about 15 more minutes here. Wondering if you have any questions for me about this practice about how to use it in your career or if anyone wants to share an experience they had while doing this whether it was pleasant or unpleasant I would love to I'm here love to answer your questions or give advice. And I know I'm seeing YouTube comments I'll see if there's anything on LinkedIn that's not coming through here. I just see myself looking at my messages. How is that experience? Okay, so someone said, great. It was so calming and I enjoyed participating live. Beautiful. Which for the tourist, which of the six was the most calming for you? I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, tourist, which was calming to you. I find the easiest one for me to access is here out, you know. Feel is the most calming. Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, and I love that it was calming for you. If there's someone who did this and it wasn't calming for you, that's okay too. You're still like I think if we think of mindfulness as it needs to be calm and peaceful, we're setting ourselves up for failure because sometimes it's not. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it's, your mind is wandering. You're always bringing yourself back. But if you think about mindfulness as in you're building concentration, sensory clarity and equanimity, it doesn't matter if it's calming or not, right? If it's calming and you get a positive experience, well, you're more likely to do it. So that's always great. But it doesn't, if you didn't get that today, it doesn't mean that you're not good at this. You're just, you're real. So one person said that they found see out the most difficult because they found it hard for them to focus and they're very distracted. Yeah, that was me my first time too. And here, feel were much easier having my eyes closed, feel more natural and I appreciated you walking us through those. Beautiful. So that's actually insight, right? That's an insight to go. The hardest one to do was see out. So you know that if you wanna do a really challenging practice and you're like, I really wanna build my concentration skills today, you could do see out for five minutes and it may not be enjoyable and you'll always have to bring yourself back. But that would be a skill builder. If you woke up and went, I wanna do a practice that is feels more ease or more full of ease, that's less of a challenge or maybe I could go deeper into it. You could choose the ones that work for you, right? And everyone is different. So I love that. Yeah, Nola saying hear out is more accessible and calming. Susan is, I love the sea and how, and I've used it to ground me in the now. Yeah, the sea for grounding, like if you'll have, again, I think about like work tasks that used to make me nervous. So I would think about, I don't like to make phone calls. So if I had to make a phone call, even grounding yourself in see out and like, what can I see on my desk? C, C, C coming down to the present and then making that phone call and then after the phone call, C, C, C. So you can use these to ground yourself in the present with work tasks, right? Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, someone said feel isn't the easiest. I think, yeah, feel. I've been teaching this for a while, but feel like here in sea are, I think most of us know we have an inner talk space and most of us know, not everyone knows about their mental screen, but because we do love seeing and hearing, paying attention to our bodies or paying attention to our emotions and just labeling them without letting them change us. Absolutely, it's not an easy thing to access. Someone said, I think looking was the most calming because I felt like I knew how to do it. Yes, that's a perfect, that's a great reason, right? Like I spent, I don't know, 13 years dabbling in a bunch of different meditation methods and then I heard Shenzhen teach this one and it was the first time that I went, oh, I think I can meditate. So yeah, right? It's a beautiful, that's beautiful if you know how to do it, that's great. Someone said, yeah, they found the inner emotions, the best in relaxing, that's great. If you know paying attention to your emotions is something that you can do that's calming, that's, then you can ground yourself in it, right? Here out was the easiest. I was surprised at how much I could hear my own heartbeat with feel out, yeah, and it made you feel very alive. Oh, that's beautiful, Leanne. I know that Leanne's also in the same city as me. Here out as a practice on a really windy winter night is kind of a bit magical because you can just listen. Even if it's five minutes, like let a candle, like what is the wind doing, and let it come and go is a really wonderful practice. But I love, like you could feel your own heartbeat. That's beautiful. See out, see out, stop the mental chatter, see? That's also like, when you're doing this techniques, it's not about perfecting it. When you do these techniques and you notice something, like Susan says that when she was doing see out, it stopped the mental chatter. That's an insight because we have so much mental chatter and most of our mental chatter is negative, right? It's like, it's judging, it's not great. And Susan just said she has noticed that that technique stopped that from happening. So it could become a go-to thing when she notices that she spirals. She could go, oh, what do I see, right? I love it. Wiggling my toes is how I ground myself. So that would be feel, right? Yeah, yeah, so that would be feel out. Yeah, is wiggling your toes, right? Yes, and windy prairie nights at the end, like. I love giving see out through the seasons because the sounds of summer is crickets and fast cars. And like the bumper season is not so much, but then winter of just like all I can hear is silence in my house or the wind or the heat coming on. And that just feels like such a soothing cycle. And before I meditated, I think I spent all that time filling that space with self-talk, right, and other stories. So yes, yes, totally. Again, Susan and I have a friend, Kyra, and she did a talk a couple of weeks ago and she said she was a backstage and she was just doing see out, counting the bricks of like the back entrance to the theater. So she did see out and she found that really calming. Yeah, so I wanna thank you for joining me tonight. You can keep, we've got a couple more minutes for questions or comments. What I love about the comments that you're making is you're being really specific about the experience that you had and that actually shows sensory clarity, right? And the way that you're saying, I like this better than that, that is an insight. And a lot of times when you're thinking about starting a mindfulness program, the best thing you can do is to choose the pieces that work for you. Because if they work for you, you're absolutely more likely to use them, right? Yeah, so, love it, like, yeah. And then if you decide after you have a base practice and you feel like you have some momentum and you're no longer like even have to think about doing a practice, then you can start making it more challenging. So you could try and do see your feel while you're walking. You can try doing it for a longer time. You could try, you know, going into a situation that is usually very, very troubling, you know? So either a person or a place where you often, you know, feel anxious or doesn't go well and purposely go into that and go, okay, when I feel like I'm about to lose it, I'm gonna see here feel. And so you can start strategically bringing these practices into your work in your everyday life. Yeah, so, and you can also, if you want, you can do a practice where you don't break it up individually. You just go, okay, I'm gonna do see your feel and notice, you know, maybe what I see. I might see the lamp, I might hear my daughter, I might feel my knee, I might hear my stool. Like I could go between them all too, is a practice that you could do, right? Yes, so thanks for joining me for those of you who are in the class. The next classes we're gonna do like privately on Zoom. So if you're in the set one career contentment club, then we'll just do Zoom and we'll be able to see each other's faces. I just wanted to give a preview for some of those people who maybe didn't know what all these practices were about. Yeah, so lovely to sit with you tonight. Thanks for coming. And I hope that this practice serves you well. Okay, we'll talk later, bye.