 Hello and welcome to day 72 of the mindfulness challenge. How are you today? I hope you enjoyed yesterday and the ability to learn to stop and I hope that you stopped, which would be nice. Excuse me, day 72. Today we're going to be talking about the feelings and sensations within the body and in particular the feelings and sensations of pleasant versus unpleasant. So when you feel something or you sense something sometimes, well that feels nice or that doesn't feel nice. And what's the reaction of your body when you move from that, oh that feels nice, you do this, that doesn't feel nice, you do that. You attach to it and that attachment will obviously ultimately shape your mindset, your thought process, everything that goes on in your mind. From that moment until whenever, you know I've said to you before, people say I've had a really bad day, you probably haven't had a really bad day, you've probably had a really bad five minutes. And why do we allow five minutes to completely shape the further 23 hours and 55 minutes? It's interesting, pleasant and unpleasant, things that have happened in your life that have been pleasant, you do this and pleasant you do that. What happens if unpleasant and pleasant you do that? What about not having to attach anything to it and just being in this beautiful space, this sameness, this loving caring self space for yourself and for others. It was unpleasant, not, oh that was unpleasant, reading like that, your demeanor, your body, your energy, dips. And what we want to do is we want to get your energy up, we want you to get this level of being, yeah I'm okay, I'm fine, it doesn't matter, pleasant and pleasant, I don't matter. I get emotions, of course I get emotions, I'm human but what I can do is I can separate those emotions from what's really happening. Because my mind is saying everything is really terrible but the reality is it's not. Everything comes to pass, good or bad. Speaking to a personal friend of mine yesterday and it was quite emotional, a bit upset about his relatives died and there was only eight people allowed at the funeral so they socially distanced in the street where she lived and they all clapped and then you had to rush home to watch the service online. And he really struggled with it all because there wasn't the ability to hug, to be able to share emotion, to be able to do all of these things. It's really difficult but we know this will pass, we know those emotions, we can look at them and say yeah I was right to feel that, I can have that but I'm over here and you have to have moments of grief and sadness and all of these things. But we don't allow them to escalate beyond where they become detrimental. Some emotions are good to have. You know crying, I was listening to a gentleman who's turned completely, turned his life around. Now he's got three or four programmes on television, I was listening to him on Radio 5 and he said you know when he hit that bottom he absolutely broke down, burst into tears with this gentleman who he didn't really know and they hugged and he cried and that was a big turning point for him because he allowed those emotions out. So I went to have emotions but let's not allow them to absolutely exhumate, take all of our lives and just extrapolate us into this pain and horridness because I really am contorted. Why? You know let's try and live our best lives, let's try as best we can and it's easy for me to say but I've been there and had it. Not worrying about it, let's enjoy today, let's listen to those birds, amazing, beautiful. I have the gift and the ability and so do you to listen to those birds and actually be in the moment and appreciate that I'm here, I'm enjoying life, small windows, we come, we go. You know people say and I had this phobia about health and dying and stuff, you know the moment somebody cuts the ambitial cord we're dying, true fact. The length of that varies person by person but let's try and make the most of everything we do. Let's try and find out our purpose, let's try and find out our goals, let's try and you know as I said yesterday, connecting with your true inner self, what are your goals, what is your purpose, what are you here for, let's have some of that clarity. So you know let's start with a meditation for pleasant and unpleasant, let's get a picture. Now find you know I want you to be comfortable, maybe it's a cushion on the floor or on a chair, just make sure that your hips are higher than your knees okay. However we're sitting, hold the spine in a very upright and tall neutral position, take a moment to inhale your shoulders right up to your eyes and then with a big sigh let it out, release and drop your shoulders back. So inhale as you do, lift your shoulders up to your ears, then a sigh out and release the shoulders back, we're going to do that once more, feels nice doesn't it. Inhale your shoulders up to over your ears and then take a sigh and release them back down. Soften your belly, soften your thighs and let your, just sit in the position you're in. Let's just sit in there speaking, just notice what's speaking to you right now and I don't mean me, what needs to adjust. And just allow it to just to set your body in so if you can feel a little bit of an ache on your back or whatever and your closed eyes are closed and just close your lips and breathe slowly and quietly in and out through your nose. And follow the awareness of the breath inward towards your body and just notice your presence right here right now. Notice and nothing else to notice than the breath and the body itself and let that thought just help you settle in further with greater patience. And in this quiet and stillness, guide your attention to your feet and open to sensation in your feet, your toes, your in step, your arches, your heels and ankles. What do you notice? Is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral? And if you notice nothing, take note of that too, in the absence of sensation in the feet, pleasant and pleasant or neutral. And whatever arises, just lend a quick label and then we move on, but then notice the sensation in your lower legs, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. And then feel your upper legs, is the feeling neutral, pleasant or unpleasant in the thighs, your hamstrings, your pelvis, your sit bones. You may notice one sensation or many or none at all, but importantly just lend it a quick label and then we move on and bring your attention to your belly, your waist, your lower back, your ribs, your mid back, your chest. In what ways is the body speaking to you? And what is the quality of what it has to say? Pleasant, unpleasant or neither? Listening now to your upper back, the shoulders and all the way down into your upper arms, the elbows, your lower arms, wrists and hands. Again, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. And what do you notice in the neck, the throat? Your chin, your mouth and nose, your eyes and your ears. In fact, your whole head, are the feelings and sensations in there pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. And now we've scanned lots of parts of the body. Choose now the one place in which you sense the body speaking to you the loudest. Maybe there are several areas asking for your attention, but just choose one. And settle your attention onto that area or that one sensation. Is it pleasant, unpleasant or just neutral? And just stay here for a little while and just explore those feelings. Move towards the sensation with curiosity and turn further inward, turn it towards its source. Is this source of your sensation in your body or in your mind? Is it moving? Is it changing? And can you pin it down? And if it's moving, what's moving? The physical sensation of your awareness. And can you separate it into parts? The sensation, your awareness of the sensation and the label you're giving of neutral, unpleasant or pleasant. Remain with awareness in this spot right here. Five more slowly, steady cycles of your breath. And just breathing five times and breathe out. Just bring your awareness to that spot. And notice the space between the awareness of your sensation and the physical sensation in the awareness of it. And just label it, label how that feels. Is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral? And as you remain right here, noticing what's arising in this one spot. Is it changing? What is different? Nothing? Everything? Is it better or worse? Any change to pleasant or unpleasant? You see there's no right or wrong answers here. Your experience is your own experience. But I want you to stay with that sensation for five more slow, steady cycles of breath. Five breaths in and five breaths out. And I want you now to release the focus on that one spot and come back to the awareness of the breath and as the body as a whole. Notice your present here, seated. Nothing to do, but be still in your body with your breath. The body, the breath, even here in this stillness, in flux, in motion, the body breathing itself. The breath is moving the body. All of it is changing. All of it with equal potential to inspire all. All of it with equal potential to feel pleasant. And as we sit here now in this really comfortable and beautiful state, we realise that our mind places labels on everything that we see throughout our day. Pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. And our mind has been conditioned in this way to help us to survive from the ancient times. And there is still a need for us to understand situations, dangers, emotions. But what we need to understand is the ability to not attach to these emotions and realise that in the main, they are only there to serve to awaken us. And when we awaken, we can awaken with that pleasant feeling of knowing our inner self, our inner child, our inner energy. To disassociate with the feelings and the labels that we put on everything. To be able to be in this beautiful state of oneness, of completeness with self, loving ourselves, holding everything in loving kindness with empathy, compassion, patience, love and trust. We know that on times life can be pleasant. We know on times life can be unpleasant. But what we want is to be able to get to that point where we live our best life. And that mindset and that energy and that awareness is what we create. Everything shall pass. Nothing lasts forever good or bad. But as our soul grows and our lives transform, the ability for us to sit in meditation and just be knowing and loving the uncertainty of life that comes to us. To be able to accept that in its fullest. To understand that on times when we experience unpleasantness and we have issues and emotions and traumas in our lives, that when we fall over or we make a mistake, the beauty within that is who's there to pick us up. How can we learn from the mistakes that is beauty in every situation? Because it gives us the knowledge, the pathway, the experience and the love in our soul to truly move forward in a beautiful and meaningful way. Today in this moment from breath to breath is all we have. But today in this moment from breath to breath it's yours for the taking. And when we come back in and open our eyes in a few moments, I want you to cherish, to love, to appreciate and to be your best self. Take a deep breath in, hold it, breathe out, wiggle your fingers and come back into the room. And lovely, and you know what, it's strange and I don't really talk about the spirituality in the spiritualism. Spirituality is about connection and relationship itself, connection and relationship with the world, gyho, with the conscious mind. And I talk about spiritualism which is a spiritual thing, which is more of a belief system that I believe in. I am a medium so I have the ability to be able to, as does everybody by the way, to be able to connect with spirit and be with spirit. And I sense spirit and I love spirit and the last part of that was absolutely channeled and guided from spirit. And it was beautiful and I could feel my energy changing, my voice dropping and spirit coming through and talking. Now whether you believe that or not, that's entirely up to you and that's beautiful in itself. I'm just explaining in you my experience because all I can give you is my experience. And that was a wonderful experience and I hope that you feel the same. Day 72 is a beautiful day. And just remember, just today, more than any other day, just appreciate everything that we have got. It's going to be about 25 degrees here today, I've got quite a bit of work to do today, spiritual work. But then I'm going to go and sit in the garden and I'm going to appreciate everything that comes to me. I'm going to slow cook some food and have a salad and I'm going to appreciate everything that comes. You see, my grandmother said to me once, Julian, get off that setty. No, she did say that, she said that a lot of times. But what she did say to me was, we only appreciate something just before we've had it and just after we've lost it. And I'll leave you with that thought. Be loving, give love. Good morning, Julian, I love you. Good morning, Jew, I love you. Day 72 of the Mindfulness Challenge. Well done, congratulations. Guess what tomorrow is? Day 73. Have a lovely day. Enjoy the sun. Appreciate everything. I love you, bye.