 Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for this afternoon workshop that We're really looking forward to sharing with you a sampling of frameworks and practices of mind fitness skills And to really look at what do we mean by mind fitness and how can you apply these in your daily life? We'll have about a little over an hour an hour 15 minutes and then tomorrow Joel and I are offering a full-day workshop So if you're really interested and you'd like to deepen and explore Even further please join us And we'll hopefully we'll have time for questions today, too But we'll just run through a series of sampling of practices that we find really helpful So one way that we love to begin a program is just to invite you to just become fully present here Okay, and maybe just if your legs are crossed uncrossed them let your feet touch the floor as Your feet touch the floor just connect with everyone and everything in your life that that gives you support and strength that gives you ground to stand on That you can draw strength and inspiration from And just like a grand old tree with deep roots in the in the ground just feel the deep roots that you have with traditions or ancestors or practices or mentors or Sources of strength and inspiration that you draw from that you draw nor nourishment from As you feel that deep grounding also Sit upright with a sense of dignity and strength and Just let yourself bought your body just rise up into the heavens like a great antenna that says I'm here to learn I'm here to serve May I collect all of the subtle signals in the vast space of infinite openness and Infinite connectedness may I be sensitive to the ripples in the force that I most need to register in order to find a path that's true for me and Find the words and the deeds and the ways of living and working and creating and serving They're for the highest good of all And as you sit in this stance of you know Really great strength and great openness Sense yourself sitting here at the center of your universe surrounded by all the people here in the room and here at the conference Sense yourself sitting here Surrounded by all your loved ones and friends your colleagues and co-workers your suppliers and your customers and the people whose lives they touch and The people whose lives they touch and the people whose lives they touch just Rippling out with all the special effects you can find and just for a moment Just pause and consider if you leave this workshop or this Conference today with even one bright idea It allows you to carry more light more wisdom more presence More loving kindness more compassion into the world how many people's lives might you touch directly or indirectly as That understanding or that quality of being ripples out through you and is reflected in the hearts and minds of countless beings Whose lives are connected to your life? so through this Calibration through this alignment through this attunement as You sit here connected to vast and infinite sources of Relatedness In a in a frame of infinite Consequentiality Just clarify your own intention for being here your own deepest questions your Aspirations the wishes the prayers The desires the needs that drive you and let us carry that into wherever we go from here Great practice for beginning the day Beginning a meeting we had a one of our clients from Silicon Valley Bank woman who ran the bank for a while Was in a program where we did something like this on the front end You know just and similar to what we talked about with Intel earlier in the first presentation and After that session she started all the meetings at the bank just having people pause and Connect and to consider you know all the stakeholders all of the people whose lives might be touched by the decisions that were made in the room during those meetings, I think it's helpful for us to just use Reflections like this to expand our consciousness And she really spoke to the the difference it made in the level the depth of listening and reflection that came Just the whole tone of the meetings would be different when they began realizing was more than just who was visibly present in the room But that they were there with and for on behalf of this larger community So as we continue I'd like to invite you just on the count of three reach out in the space in front of you and pick Up an apple okay one two three and look at it and See what you've got here. How many people have a red apple? How many have a green apple how many have a yellow apple? Interesting how many people have a stem on your apple facing up Facing down. I don't have a multicolored apple Okay, and as we do this to appreciate how do you know what color your apple is? How many people have an iphone 6? Or I mean like in this would reach out and grab it you know or iPad You know but to begin to become mindful of these subtle harmonics of being alive that we don't pay so much attention to you Know it's like how many of you really vividly see the apple How many of you have a good? Kinectatic sense of it the shape the way the way how many of you can smell it How many of you salivate if I say imagine biting in Wonderful study that was done on a group of Scientists you know saying how do you make your breakthroughs in creativity and innovation? It was fascinating Some percentage of them would would come to their breakthrough ideas through Mathematical equations that would arise in their mind Some would come to their breakthroughs through Kinectatic Feelings you know patterns of energy or movement or sensation in the body Some would visually see images or you know meaningful kinds of Imagery that would arise in the mind others had objectless Knowing like clear knowing So this whole notion of mindfulness that we hear about is essentially waking up to all the harmonics and the wave of goals of the ways that you Know and that you experience and being Awake and sensitive to how life presents itself to you as we launch into this afternoon We just like to share a little bit of conceptual framework and then focus mostly on experiential learning. Okay, so Remember the apple and just you know, please as we proceed You know assume some Responsibility for being a co-producer of whatever comes next okay, because we'll say whatever we we say and you're going to have Whatever apple you create. Okay, so just be mindful of what's happening on the outside Really tuned in and listening but also be really mindful at the same time of what's happening on the inside The images that come to mind The emotions that arise the sensations within your body so this term of mindfulness that's becoming so Trendy and so in we really want to present this as an operating system not an app You know, it's not just about a technique, but it's really about a way of life It's a way of accessing and being available to greater wisdom It's not stripped. It's not a technique that's taken out of its deep core of ethics ethical foundation and In a deeper the way that we relate to each other into our world It's not only about a quality of attention, but it's really a whole way of living and being with each other and working in the world And in a sense if you want out you were talking about mind fitness here You know, there's two primary dimensions to the mind, okay? One is the dimension that the mind where the contents are ever-changing Sounds come and go thoughts come and go motions arise sensations come and flow through the body Experiences happen and then subside everything's have a beginning and an end That's one dimension of the mind and most of our experience and our psychology is really focused on Managing that flow of energy and information But there's another dimension of the mind which is open and clear and vast and boundless like the sky That's the space in which clouds come and go and which storms come and go It's knowing it's clear. It's boundless. It's objectless and therefore it doesn't get a lot of mark on it doesn't get a lot of conversation because you can't describe it other than awake aware aware aware of being mindful But in a sense if all if I could count to three and snap my fingers and all of us Would just push the pause button on the on the changing mind Let's try that one two three And we are all just here looking out through our eyes and smiling to ourselves in a space of Open clear awareness there would just be one mind here Okay, but within that one mind you're having your experiences the Mila Experiences and Joel's having them just the Joel experiences and Tom's having the Tom experiences But when we just you know drop in deep enough like islands, you know below the surface of the the ocean There's this deep common substrate have shared knowing mind collective intelligence presence sacred holy being Depends on your frame of reverence So mindfulness is just a wonderfully skillful way to Drop the bottom out and say would you like to have a deeper conversation about being alive and being aware and doing business and all that But and mindfulness can be very you know kind of mindful to the space stress reduction in the eight weeks We'll give you the app as Michelle saying you know we're talking about fundamental connection with core operating system here and How to get more in touch with that it's this great quote from Parker Palmer Who's a great teacher very wise man He says a leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to project on other people his or her shadow Or his or her light a leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power To create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being conditions that can either be as Illuminated as heaven or shadowy as hell The leader is a person who must take social responsibility for what's going on inside his or herself Inside his or her consciousness less the act of leadership create more harm than good The problem is that people in our rise to leadership in our society by a tendency towards Extroversion which means a tendency to ignore what's going on inside Leaders rise to power in our society by operating very Competently and effectively in the external world, but sometimes at the cost of internal awareness I've looked at some training programs for leaders, and I'm discouraged how often they focus on the development Skills to manipulate the external world rather than the skills necessary to go inward to make the inner journey and Just a word of warning as we embark into this at least caution It takes courage to do this work It takes courage to wake up It takes courage to sit in the fire of your own cognitive dissonance when we were asked after a Report was released saying that more than twice as many men and women died of suicide when they came back for more than died in combat Which gave rise to us being invited in to try and help them find an alternative to that Many of the men were scared to death of sitting quietly with their own minds and looking inside And so this notion that mindfulness is not for the faint-hearted If you want to build a mindful organization, you will have an uncomfortable organization Because you'll get to wrestle with all the ethical questions and dilemmas and work the stuff that otherwise might be mindlessly ignored Lao Tzu said a person with outer courage dares to die and a person with inner courage dares to live So we really were expanding the spectrum of what does that mean to have both the the inner and the outer That's required at times of crisis So you could say you know most people don't operate their minds well because they don't know what it is or how it works and It's a little hard to catch hold of you know, but some of our best teachers in this work have been engineers deeply spiritual engineers Who are fascinated by the nature of consciousness and what we found over the years is that? when a techie or an engineer gets interested in recombinant psychology and and working with the mind and they start to realize the same kind of rigor and the tension that's gone into Trying to make things that work better on the outside can be applied to Recorea graphing and calibrating themselves for optimal performance or deeper wisdom or greater Capacity they really pick it up quick because it makes sense, and I think that's really quite exciting as William James the Father of modern psychology once said the greatest thing in all education is to make the nervous system our ally instead of our enemy And I think you know just to Feel some great sense of tenderness for yourself for the gift that your parents and your ancestors gave you That you have a multilayered nervous system capable of being awake that you're awake To be able to smile and go how cool is that you know, and just I'm awake and look at this weird Cartoon show passing through my mind and not have to identify with that so working with the mind this is a great model of you know what we're talking about in terms of mind fitness that comes from the US Military Academy West Point and it's a it's a good robust model cognitive foundations and beliefs and values Driving the goals that we set and the intentions we hold Learning how to master attention through mindfulness and concentration learning how to manage stress and and self-regulate Working with visualization and creative imagination One of our Navajo teachers actually I'll ask a question. How many of you know, I think you have a very creative mind And how many people maybe not so much, you know, how many of you know how to worry really well Okay, you are creative You are super creative good visualization. Yeah, and there's one of our Navajo teachers David Chetla Paladin used to say worrying is just praying backwards Worrying is just praying backwards, you know, so Imagine what you could do with all that creative energy, you know, if you were in invested and non-toxic assets And use it to build your health and your strength and your vitality rather than just decimate yourself so a good model another model you know from my university of Wisconsin Medical School We use this a lot when we work in medicine say let us break this down for you. It doesn't have to be complicated many times throughout the day pause Get present and proceed pause Wake up get present feel your hands touching your sides take a mindful breath See the thoughts going through your mind hear the sounds around you pause get present Get traction with reality and then proceed and if you do that many times a day You will be less anxious less stress less depressed more creative more productive less likely to burn out Could we turn on the investment? Another way to work with the mind understand the mind let's say there's the Creative mind, you know, most of us are pretty familiar with this. We've been educated to think and reason We haven't been educated so much to use our creative imagination and visualization so much But you could all find an apple, okay, so and you all know how the worry it looked like And then there's intention Michelle invited us to consider the importance of intention earlier. These are all young Generative qualities of mind, you know, they they shape reality. They they help us have control and And to to think and to do But these qualities of mind are also balanced. Oh actually before we do that Just on the count of three reach out and receive or touch or pick up Something that symbolizes for you this creative mind or this generative mind, okay? Just see what the universe gives you on this one two three Something you can touch something you can hold that symbolizes creative mind Generative mind see what that is notice how it comes to you and just call out what images or symbols come to mind Paper what else? Pen, what else paintbrush guitar Sunflower skull screwdriver Heart, okay Very colorful toy Wonderful, okay, it's working Then the other at hold that one in that hand, you know, don't lose it and Then in the other hand just consider and tune into the dimension of the mind that is more receptive and of listening Your somatic intelligence just that dimension of you that's embodied and present Just here that quality of mindful presence Awakeness mysterious knowing that is sitting there smiling wondering what's going to happen next and This quality of intuitive intelligence, which is that dimension where the portal is open To the stream of revelations and inspirations and great ideas that might light you up Maybe as imagery, but maybe also just as clear knowing Objectless knowing and on three reach out and just pick up or receive or touch something that symbolizes the More receptive mind for you. See how that comes to you be mindful and What what images or symbols come to mind here a flower? Dorn of rain sponge diamond Okay, so hold both of these for a moment and again in a sense of kind of aligning a tuning calibrating just see if you can Find a balance of these two realities or dimensions of your being these two qualities of creative intelligence that are so vital to the wholeness of your being and Just see if maybe there's a gesture that brings them really into Ideal balance in some kind of way that like you're tuning an antenna Just see what that is This generative and receptive aspect of the mind and just breathe and just kind of see what it's like to come Into that kind of balance of receptive and generative at the same time and then on three If you like you may not want to mess with things if you like Bring both of those symbols together and let them Interfuse and see what happens when they merge okay one two And just notice what happens as you do that just an image a symbol of feeling a word And then a few samples just what did you have on one hand? What did you have in the other hand what happened when you brought them together and call it out loud enough that? People can hear but then we'll repeat for the recording okay color movement warmth warm imprinted Yeah, the image became imprinted fire The Sun Melting tree over water sounds like the each Okay So again, these are just ways to kind of like welcome to the playground You know, it's like all these wondrous Capacities came bundled with your humanity. How often do you take these toys out and play with them? And work with them and refine them and receive the gifts that these open So it's really in putting together this quiet Receptive mind and this more active one, you know the the more prayerful intentional like a scientist Looking for a solution to some Situation or some problem holding that intention a very bright clear way and listening really Receptive saying help me teach me what what might be clues to a solution here bringing Bringing that young and that yin together that active and that receptive together This really is the heart and core of our creative intelligence So as we bring this work into organizations, this is kind of a macro model for it This one way to understand it, there's the moral and ethical foundations of this work and A lot of contemporary mindfulness teachings. That's not real explicit anymore Which is sad because in the classic traditions it vibrant and foundation So as we introduce this in organizations we talk about well You know if you've got toxic relationships, you'll probably have a little have a lot of mind body distress, right? And there won't be a great deal of health and vitality in your people therefore if you want to improve the wellness of people You've got to have people being weller together Kinder together more supportive communicating better nonviolent communication cooperation So if we can build quality relationships more likely we'll get mind body harmony If we can let go of the stress and build more wellness then then from that mind body harmony Then we can begin to learn how to work with the mind develop more concentration Samadhi focus Take that wandering mind and make it more coherent flowing As the mind becomes more coherent more peace and more power Then mindfulness just naturally arises. We're awake and then we learn how to sustain that wakefulness and to pay attention And the listening in deeper ways That gives us more insight more intuition that grows our wisdom and Then that wisdom that expresses as innovation efficiency compassion effectiveness creativity that improves the quality of relationships And I know some of you have meditation and yoga practices. This is how it would map into that Quadrant from one to three there It's all the practices for harmonizing and balancing energy mastering stress easing strain From three o'clock to six o'clock mind body harmony to mindful attention So all the practices for building focus concentration Samadhi Coherence in the mind From six o'clock to nine o'clock. This is where you really work with Mindfulness and deep inquiry and deep looking into the nature of things giving rise to wisdom and from nine o'clock to 12 o'clock there. These are all the practices for really building creativity and loving kindness and compassion and ethics and Integrity and really bringing those online. So you can see the inner and the outer works seamlessly mapped together There's lots of technology available And there's lots of evidence-based research to affirm the efficacy of the technology A map of the territory So holding the intention that you've said earlier or recalibrating Regenerating whatever your intention might be for this session. Let's just begin to do some practice for a first begin building focus and Concentration which really lays the foundation for being able to develop a deeper wisdom and insight Are just to kind of begin to let the mind settle and calm so that there isn't as much turbulence and Wandering and it's more. It's a more powerful mind when we're focused and concentrated There's greater peace as well as greater power and one one pretty universal way of connecting with these types of techniques for Focusing and it's a kind of a balanced focus. This is not a tight or rigid focus But a real there's a sense of flow and movement within the focus is to begin as you're sitting here comfortably Just sitting straight taking your seat to just notice the natural Flow of your breath in this moment. Just find your breath wherever you notice it most strongly Perhaps in your abdomen belly chest Just the movement of rising with the inhalation Letting go the falling release with the exhalation Or perhaps for you, you notice the breath coming in and out through the nostrils We're more predominantly just however it is for you just find that gateway of the breath No need to change your breathe in any special way Just simply witnessing Following and flowing with this natural movement. So that is a breath comes in We know you're breathing in Breathing out You know you're breathing out just establishing this home base of mindful breathing mindful awareness of the breath And in a moment just to bring to recruit more neurons to be build even greater coherence and congruence within the nervous system as you Experience the sensation of the breath Coming in the inhalation just allow one hand or both hands to just rise to float up with the in-breath and to just Synchronized with the breath to just flow down with the exhalation So we're bringing the body in in a more even more visible and tangible way With the more subtle sensation of the breath Letting the hands follow the breath Breath is leaving Can even just use it one finger more subtly if you like Now we're going to integrate the speech center as well as the mind the awareness and the body so that as you Breathe in your hands raise Rise Say to yourself silently here breath goes out the hands Lower now So just a simple word here on the in-breath Now on the out-breath Just a way to collect all the energy of your body speech and mind Focusing it in this very present moment each Breath here. Let me notice that some breaths are longer and summer Shallow Swifter The movement of the hands can just help you connect with that Change moment-to-moment change that's always happening. You could use another phrase like arriving on the in-breath home home to yourself home to your true Being on the out-breath just coming home to this present moment can create phrase for yourself that you like Just keep it simple be receiving on the in-breath receiving all the nourishment and inspiration that you need And radiating on the out-breath sharing it Sending this life-force energy out into the world receiving radiating and then just pausing for a moment to check in with yourself and just run a little discerning check in just And what were the fruits of that these experiments the gifts Has it feel to be alive in this moment just having collected your mind body Harness the power of the mind that likes to talk to itself just bringing it here So just a brief sampling in a word or an image what it's present What's came forth from that what was the effects of running that protocol in the laboratory for life Word or an image Peaceful what else clarity in sync awkward Many new moves our first time is like what am I doing and how does this work and neuromuscular? Patterns aren't a step can be awkward creating new circuits and bless the awkwardness And anything else space Space time So remember the karate kid movies, you know wax on wax off Yeah, it's just why am I doing this you know breathing in breathing out waving my hands in the air saying magic Incantations like here and now why in order to develop the capacity To maintain the focus of your awareness Would that be valuable? You know rather than Scattered monkey mine, I mean we all have mastered that one by now Haven't we but this concentration thing you know choosing one thing to focus on deeply Really deeply in the continuous kind of way wax on wax off You know and if you hold the intention to pay attention, then you're willing to just Stay with it Then gradually like like as you look out through your eyes right now try this just really Intently look at Michelle's beauty for a moment Just take her in and as you do I mean just visually take her as the object of your contemplation and Hold that intention and imagine that all those neurons that allow you to visually focus or to Appreciate beauty or whatever it is as you hold to the intention to pay attention in that kind of way all those neural pathways get activated and Strengthen and they and those neurons start to build bridges between themselves and build more robust Neural pathways that allow you to maintain the focus of intention Now you can relax a little bit, okay? So that with many of these these practices, they're like mind sprints where for 30 seconds or a few minutes you hold your intention on The magic mantra here and now or focus and flow or just breathing in with awareness breathing out for awareness You hold that for some period of time and as you do you you rewire the brain to be able to do that easier It's like these mind Programs as you run them the more you run them in a quality way The the easier the programs run So that there's this neural suppleness and connectivity that grows as you Take tasks like I'm going to walk from From the parking garage to my office in a mindful way I'm going to have this conversation that I'm about to begin. I'm really going to show up for it I'm going to eat this bowl of ice cream and Savor it with full intention and attention You know just little activities that have a beginning and an end that you challenge yourself to show up for and Here's here's a real key If you get one point for every moment of sustained attention You get two points every time the mind wanders and You notice the excursion and you come back Okay Every time you notice that the mind wanders You notice the excursion and you come back you get double points It's like the recognition is like And the repetition is like working out building your muscles of your physical body at the gym You do how many sets you know the repetitions actually build those muscles? It's the same thing in this kind of mind training where we're learning to tame that wild galloping horse of the mind and Or it's kind of like if you've ever trained a little puppy to Sit sits for a second jumps off again Stay and the more puppy learns sit Stay the longer it can it will actually sit and stay and for ourselves the value of being able to To tell our minds you know sit This question with this project just stay the more we're able to actually penetrate and with more deeply and actually Have allow deeper insight to arise so the more we train our mental muscles to Come back to recognize and return without as I spoke earlier about the importance of the attitude of having a self-compassionate attitude and not beating ourselves up for Forgetting or for wandering but just recognize it and then just catch the next breath or catch the next moment The person is still there talking with us. I'm I'm Wandered for a moment Recognize where your mind went because you want to bring it to awareness and consciousness You want to know what's calling you but you just come back and you refocus and that builds those mindful muscles muscles of our attention and Intention gets stronger So that's a that's one of the first basic my fitness Disciplines skills Here's a great technique we learned this initially from one of our Tibetan teachers and First time he came to Seattle. He was meeting with a group of us and He said so how many of you have a meditation daily meditation practice? Many people raised their hands and felt quite proud of themselves How many of you sit for an hour every day and number of people I sit for an hour a day And then he kind of leaned over and said so how many of you who sit for an hour a day if you're honest with yourself Your mind is just wandering for 59 and a half minutes and you're just doing kind of sleepy dog meditation Just total crap Good intention, but not much discipline and people started to squirm So maybe it's better if you just meditate for 30 seconds at a time It's good quality really yeah when we teach this in corporate circles. We call it TQM total quality meditation Or stoplight meditation, but it's great because it really shows you how to do these mind sprints So I'll describe how this works and we'll do a few reps together Okay, so I'll use the bells in practice. You probably won't be using the bells, but the bells are so cool When the bells ring I'd invite you to just Softly just make the sound You know like you've been working hard and then you sit down About to drink a pint. You know just Is that just sweet space of relaxation and letting go and open this with awareness And you want this ought to be like dropping a stone in the pool of awareness so that your awareness just opens And as you do that then the breaths will come and go Sounds will come and go thoughts and mental images will come and go no bother. No, there's no distractions here You're just abiding in this openness and this clear open awareness, and we're gonna hold that for about 20 seconds And I'll snap my fingers and it's done hold in the sense that you're not holding your breath the breaths come and go But hold in the sense of sustaining awareness of just being here and As the most open sound that we can make so it's a wonderful sound to practice with it's just You know, it's just that it the sound itself creates a sense of space and spaciousness It's like friends of ours who've studied Indian music for some of them who trained really classically for the first year of their training All they did was play one note or sing one note. It was just So Get that one note down really really really really really good, you know, like her Perfectly dialed in and then once that's just like totally dialed in you start to realize all the other notes come out of that one All the other harmonics are there So in the same way, you know, just ah Can we be here ready? Set your eyes can be open or closed doesn't matter It's like the mind be open and clear like the sky vivid clear present awake Welcoming whatever rises and passes in this clear space of knowing and let it go just relax Wow, that wasn't so hard. Maybe I can meditate after all. I Could hold my attention that much. Let's do it again. Okay? If you can bring kind of like a little smile in the background You know, just like a sense of delight curiosity openness non-judgment Just to brighten this space of awareness let it go and then one more time This one do with your eyes open if you haven't done it eyes kind of soft open receptive Remember the smile Kind of brighten that space of awareness Curious open Wonderful So your assignment if you were so bold to accept it When you leave maybe sometime this afternoon here at the conference just in the next coffee break or whatever Just pause in the midst of the hubbub and go And just feel the buzz be the space in which the buzz is happening if you leave here pause on a busy street corner or if you go like To the pub or infinity foods or whatever in the midst of the bustle there just And and begin to anchor that not just with stop lights when you're driving in your car But to anchor this with arriving in a new place or about to begin a meeting or About to cross a threshold or something like that just moments of coming really fully Present and seeing what's going on inside and outside how many of you think you could do that and You know just to do it frequently throughout the day you can get these great apps for your phone, you know Great, you know Zen timer mindfulness Bell Things like that said a little chime to ping you throughout the day at random times like your wake-up Bell We've done this in many really large organizations where they'll be a set of bells or they'll be a little chime that goes off at random times It's just an invitation for everybody in the environment just to come back to themselves for a moment. You just Remember what's important take three mindful breaths if you're talking to a client. It's okay to keep talking It's okay But just to keep to it and create an environment that encouraged people to just live closer to To home or to own or whatever you want to call this place of awareness Not so hard Okay, so We'd like to share a way that we teach mindfulness. Sometimes this actually is a favorite kind of navigation tool at Google It's sort of like mindfulness across four dimensions in seven steps, okay It's beautiful because it's a practice of not Doing what you're doing already but doing in it in an intentional and extraordinary kind of way so Step one. Let's all how about our ring bells as we cross each threshold and with each bell You can just do a little ah, okay Just to mark the transition with the first bell wake up to your surroundings eyes open the lights the space the colors Perhaps the temperature of the air just be mindful of The field of your senses as well as awareness of the people around you just your environment Where are you? Just really show up Super here, I think she called it Okay, and with the bell then drop in a little deeper and bring your awareness just to focus in your body Feel your body sitting on the chair Places of contact where your bottom touches the seat feet on the floor Your hands touching each other or your lap Allow yourself to really drop into what it's like to be in your body in this moment sensations Vibrations moving through after lunch What's it like And again within the body you might as you do the scan kind of scanning running your internal radar through the body just to Notice and appreciate this miraculous flow of the breath Sustaining your life Keeping on going Day and night in the heartbeat in a similar way. Can you feel your pulse? feel the Pump and the rest rhythm. It's with you your whole life unlike any other Muscle or organ. It's continually working. It's got this built-in Rhythm and balance of rest of work and rest of pumping out and receiving back Move the awareness through your body and appreciate the gifts That your body brings you Whatever is speaking to you in this moment and with the next ah dropping in deeper still and opening the field of your mindful awareness to welcome the movements of Thoughts and mental images and as you do not to follow any of those thoughts and not to push any of them away and not to develop them or diminish them, but simply be that open clear space of awareness in which those wave of coals of thoughts and mental images kind of coalesce like clouds Forming and dissolving into the clear sky just to be in the shimmering this of that with great wonder delight perhaps with that smile Curiosity and openness in the backer and at this dimension also bring awareness if there are any emotions present just to recognize these again without embellishing or Suppressing just to notice what's alive in the realm of all these changing feelings Emotions thoughts and mental images arising passing moving through Clear space of your awareness Continuing our guided tour of the many dimensions of our being going deeper still and Here just coming to rest in that clear open dimension of the mind that is awake Kind of in the radiance of that smile of knowing that you know of being awake that you're away Touching a dimension to the mind that's open and clear and vast like the sky and not so Concerned with what's arising and passing within it. They're just being sky big sky mind awake Like the deep silence within which all sounds arise and dissolve and then adding back into this clear awareness Welcoming the movements of the mind again Sensing both this clear open dimension of mindful clear presence and the movements of the mind the shimmerings of the mind and then bringing your awareness again into the body to as a primary focus still aware of Everything else, but they're more in the background and you're really really bringing shining the light If you had a flashlight of awareness just shining that back into the physical sensations places of contact Warm pressure movement and flow Heartbeat breathing other sensations moving in your body and then letting the laughter Invite our awareness to expand into the environment around us again to hear the sound to sense the air the temperature light The colors the presence of other people the space that you're in the space between the top your crown in the Ceiling in the spaces around you And then let's do a final odd just to bring it all together into one unified field of being and awareness How many of you think you could do that when on your own? Outer awareness into the body the movements of the mind clear awareness take it back out Simple practices, but very profound and this is nice because it can telescope if you have 30 seconds or a minute You can go just do an inventory a quick systems check If you have 10 minutes or a half hour an hour and you can just change Dimensions whenever you just kind of it's it's just not interesting anymore You know you can move on to the next one if you like or refine your awareness It's more interesting But actually any one of those dimensions could be a complete mindfulness practice or session on its own So you could choose to just spend One session just with the body or at the space around you just listening to Sounds going on or any of these dimensions sometimes it's really nice to just weave it all together and just Yeah, to integrate all the facets of your experience in present moment So another one thing because especially some of us tend to focus more naturally or we have more of a home base And in one of those dimensions where maybe we're more aware of our body But not our feelings or more our thoughts, but not what's going on around us So to be aware of all of these levels and to spend some time Checking in can help you to expand the the repertoire of your mindful awareness You know the scope spectrum of presence that you can bring in any given moment So one other way to kind of frame and understand these practices of mindfulness and keep in mind there are there are Dozens if not hundreds of different streams and styles of mindfulness practice This is for the universal framework is the acronym RAIN which I think is quite appropriate for Brighton and Seattle But we're talking about recognition acceptance investigation non-identification Recognition what is present on the screen of my awareness what what little gelflings are dancing through my guest house And to just see what's on the screen of awareness and to recognize and to accept it It doesn't mean you have to like what's happening, but you recognize that oh, there's sadness. There's joy. There's pleasure. There's pain There's quiet. There's noise Recognize it and accept it Accept in the sense of not being in denial about it We're wanting to raise all these subtle signals these whispers to the level of conscious awareness where there is where we can work with it and Then the eye investigation. There's a more young kind of generative Engagement to mindfulness. It's not just totally this receptive mode But there's really this deep curiosity of what is this What is this and I'm looking deeply you know any of us there are consultants or physicians or scientists or Software engineers and I know this quality of what's going on here? You know, how do I debug this? Looking deeply into the complexity trying to comprehend not necessary. It could be Analytical, but it could also be just a deep intuitive listening What's really going on here and then this quality of non-identification is Really that to realize we're not defined by the experience if there's anger or sadness or frustration or what have you There's that experience. That's not me We're more than any of those experiences, so we don't get identified with them Let's pop a few questions just as you sit there. What curiosities do you have you know? If you're be so bold to share call it out Yes Yes Good question. So that's a great question and it comes back to that balance of the the active mind and the quiet mind If we try a lot, there's a big focus. Yes observing in her mindfulness practice and training on Clearing the mind on quieting the mind pressing the clear buttons, so to speak and there are times when we have big questions that we'd really like to To access a deeper insight around and how do I how do those two work together that the clearing of the mind of extraneous thoughts and Holding, you know contemplating a Theme or a question and actually they work really well together and that's where like when we speak of mind fitness It's more than mindfulness mindfulness tends to be that simply the awareness and the presence and That receptive quality of mind, but there's also reflective Meditations and there's that that active aspect of the active mind where you can pose a question Or a theme that you want to understand more deeply and then you it's kind of like dropping that pebble into the pool of the quiet mind and it's more likely if you've spent some time Being with the breath or Any of these practices that we've touched and explored a little bit that just bring greater calm Create more space in the mind then when you drop that question and you sit with it And you're not trying too hard in a tense way You're not struggling with the question. You're sitting simply like asking that question And you're listening for intuitive images or thoughts that might come up Feelings, you know all those different kind of ways of knowing that we have It's more likely you'll be able to catch that whisper of some inspiration or an image or symbol or many ways that that our Deeper mind speaks to Ourselves to our more superficial mind with ways that we can be present for and if the mind's very busy or too tense It's more likely the circuits will be too jammed and we'll miss that Valuable insight or that inspiration. So in a sense, it's great to do some mindfulness practice then sit and you know hold Just at pose that question that you're working with you can even have a journal or draw or see how How the mind the deeper creative symbolic intuitive mind presents a response to just Live with that question watch your dreams at night. Look, you know, just ask to be To be shown clues Well, how ever much time you have you can experiment with that and also to keep in mind Mindfulness may not clear the noise from your mind You may just become aware of how noisy it is And you're not doing it wrong, you know, it's just a lot of people freak out and you know It's like I don't know what it's like in the UK But I would imagine the same a lot of people get excited about meditation and they get their Meditation cushion and they're and all the that stuff and then all their you know They get frustrated and they bail and they have Zen decor, but no practice So to appreciate that that when you sit down to meditate sometimes, honestly, it will be a shitstorm of thoughts and Turbulent emotions and it's like you're not doing it wrong. You're just showing up for the party, you know, and it's like Like It's noisy. This is what it is and there's other times where you show up and you're sleepy And there's other times that you show up and it's really a very shanty quiet vibe and you go Oh, I'm there, but you're there in the midst of whatever it is. It's like the roomie guest house poem Which is a classic saying this being human is a guest house Every moment a new arrival some joy some sadness and meanness meet them at the door laughing and invite them in for tea Welcome whoever comes because even if they come as a crowd of sorrows, they may be clearing you out for some new delight Yeah So the you know not to feel bad if there's a lot of noise You can oh and some questions as many of us know you live with for months or years just to have the practice of Being mindful of what are the potent questions that journey with you through your life is a powerful practice We have a friend who's working with what am I grateful for and just asking that question Cultivating this attitude of gratitude Which is an incredibly powerful attitude to enrich and deepen our lives and our relationships But to go beyond the superficial to really come into the deep feeling of gratitude and letting it kind of flow back Back to the source of of that gift to really live with so what am I grateful for in my life at this time In this day and just that's the same question, but it keeps revealing deeper and deeper layers and learnings That we had more time we do tomorrow We've got a whole day seminar tomorrow. We'll build on this and we can come back again if there's ever any interest As you see we're rather keen on this work But how about this just by way of review and just to kind of get our voices involved here Sort of human Mike style like in the Occupy Movement just in a word or an image just anybody say something that was meaningful for you that you want to remember from this session and Everybody you can hear what they say Repeat that Our collective mindfulness and perhaps a review because someone will remember something that you didn't remember But yeah highlight something you'd like to remember fun and take with you Creative happens anywhere everybody okay Presence Relaxing It's okay So imagine you imagine just taking the sprouting seed of what you touched here today and nurturing it and letting that grow and grow And grow and inspire everybody you meet along the way to grow their garden as well how Magnificent your life can become and imagine developing teams and organizations that have a valuing of an understanding of a dedication to this work in order to build organizations and communities that thrive and Have the capacity to bring through the wisdom and the good work that the world needs How beautiful and magnificent a creation that can be Like to do one last little practice Do one quick just one invitation before that just well Oh rest of the time at the at the conference and beyond just to take what one Percentage one portion of all the conversations that you have You know however many you choose but just to really take that on as a mindful Dialogue or mindful conversation to really show up to challenge yourself to be here for yourself To really be in touch with what you're feeling whilst someone's speaking with you and To really listen to them like really fully like they're the most important thing in the whole world To really be present for them and just just kind of practice in daily life That kind of mindfulness in dialogue with each other and run the experiment Okay, so as we're wrapping up if you're interested in the workshop tomorrow talk to us or Tom or Louise I have given Tom some email lists will put those up on the stage here We send that an email thought for the day or a meditation or quote usually five days a week If you'd like to be on that list, it's a really nice way to stay in touch with us And if you've got any questions, we'll we'll linger on so we want to do one last little practice And then we'll read something together and we're done So Imagine this is a practice of dedication Imagine you can gather all the positive energy and inspiration that we've generated through being together in this way Gather that into you like waves of light or energy or strength and Then imagine that you can let that Energy or that light flow forward in the stream of your awakening being to light your way forever more That you can draw strength from that the charge in that battery will power you as your journey continues And then imagine you can gather that light into your heart and let it just flow from your heart into the heart of Everybody here who's been a part of this experience saying here carry a little bit of my light with you a little bit of my Learning my love my inspiration with you as you carry a little bit of each of theirs And then let this goodness flow from your heart into the hearts of all your loved ones and friends your pets your colleagues co-workers neighbors in Infinite extension let it flow from your heart into the hearts of all beings that they too will carry some of your light and it will Serve to activate and affirm their potential to find the light of this clear awareness within them and Then in that just to get us giggling a little bit as we walk out the door Let us read this these words of wisdom by doctors You have brains in your head you have feet in your shoes you can steer yourself Direction you choose you're on your own and you know what you know