 Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Being Human podcast. Thanks for watching on YouTube. Thanks for listening wherever you listen. I was watching, uh, Lord of the Rings yesterday night. Please give this a like or subscribe or comment. Let's talk about Lord of the Rings. I will see you in the comments, my friends. But this is when I worked at Best Buy years ago and, uh, I remember I, ooh, am I supposed to say this? I broke a bit of a rule about 12 years ago at Best Buy. The Lord of the Rings extended editions came out, right? You know, you get the whole booklets of all special features, the artwork, the costumes, everything. And, uh, it came in on the truck and there are only a few left and I put them out on the floor and I kept one in the warehouse for me to buy after my shift. It's still, I still got it right here. And I cracked it open yesterday and I was just like, man, do I want to be part of a project like that where you have all of these people working on a single thing. You had costume design, you had set design, you had people actually going to different areas of New Zealand to see the sets, you had all of that, you had the acting, you had the script writing, you had the special effects, you had the coloring. It was like the most unbelievable thing to watch to see how these movies are made. And, uh, Peter Jackson goes to, I forget what, what the spot was called, but it's where they filmed like the Shire where they had to build it all there. And I saw, um, they kind of drive there and they just knew right away that, oh, this is where they're going to have the unexpected party. This is where, um, uh, Bag End is going to be all of that. And I was like, you know what? In that Windows XP kind of background looking area, that is very easy for a human being to soak in life around them and in them. Think about how easy that is. If you went on one of those Lord of the Rings tours and I'm going, I got to go within the next five years. I'm there. I'm in New Zealand. Follow me. You'll see me there. That's just how life will work. I will literally be there. I can predict that part of my future. I know something will bring me there. And it's so easy. Think of yourself there. It's like, boom, you see the grass, the trees. You're just, it's so easy to maybe not think about a million other things and to really take a step back and have a pause. And what we're calling, maybe this episode will be, uh, sitting in the middle of your life, sitting in the middle of your life. It's easy in the shire, but it's harder if you're like me or if you're like you and you're not in these beautiful rolling hills all day with these beautiful trees and all of that. Our minds become occupied with other things and responsibilities. And oh my gosh, there's so much out of our control and what we need to do to survive and to get money and to save and to embrace and develop relationships, take care of children, our loved ones, shovel the snow, you know, rake the leaves, cut the grass. We got a billion things to do. While we're doing things, we can take a step back and realize and sit in the middle of life. But I thought we could do an exercise right now where no matter what you're doing right now, why don't we sit in the middle of our lives right now? Because imagine if you were in the shire, there was a book called, uh, The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello. And he talks about if we're going through life and we're going through this amazing landscape, like the shire, but we're on a bus and we're all together we're chatting and the blinds on the bus are also pulled down and we're completely in the dark. We're not enjoying, we're not seeing, we're just arguing the best way to get to the grave. So why don't we just sit with ourselves and what's around us and I'll kind of take you through what I do through the day. And you know, there's going to be no background music here. It's just going to be you and yourself, me and your ears. And let's just take a seat or maybe you're raking the grass, cutting the grass. Whatever you're doing right now, metaphorically, we're going to take a seat in the middle of our life right now. Let's first start off with what we see. Pay attention to what you see right now. What's around you? What's around you? And don't just, you know, you can say there's a screen in front of me. No, no, no, but what are you looking at? Colors and the shapes, contrast, right? I'm seeing windows here and drops of rain on the glass. A tree outside the front here, gently swaying in as bright or green as it's spring. What do you see and just what the label anything quickly? Just notice what you're seeing. That's all you're doing right now. Gazing, a soft gaze at what's around you. You're just looking. This is what you're doing right now. This is it. This is all you're doing right now. I know you got a to-do list, right? I know we got things, but this is the thing at this moment. So if you're looking, that's the thing. You're doing a great job. And now from that sense of sight, move and shift your attention to your ears as you pull back that focus to your ears, your drums. And you can close your eyes if you'd like. Now you shift your focus into what you're hearing around you. Maybe if it's really quiet, you can hear what's happening inside you. If it's a swallow, a heartbeat, and I'll be quiet for a few moments while you take in the sounds of life. When we do that, sometimes you hear the air conditioner. You never really heard what it really sounds like. Sometimes you get the gurgle in the belly and you really, like almost for the first time, really paid attention to what a gurgle is. What's that called? Anamanapia? The thing that sounds like the thing, like crack, boom, smack. So you get that gurgle or whatever it is, your heartbeat, you feel your heart. When we pay attention to these things, they become real. Now shift your focus and take a seat in the middle of your life. You now have the sight, you heard the sounds. Now touch something around you. And with all of your focus gently shifting, touch. This can be something that you're sitting on and noticing what your back feels like on the chair. What your butt feels like on the chair. What your feet feel like on the floor or maybe you're walking. So what's that sensation of walking like? Now for me, the touch, the heat of the glass with my peppermint tea in it. And I'm with you all at the same time because I'll sip a tea. Just chug it. I won't think about it. I'm doing my work. I'll sip it. Don't really notice the heat and the temperature. What can you touch around you? And really feel it. Got the bic pencil here, mechanical pencil. Amazing how sensitive our skin is to these fibers and small hairs on our arms. I was outside the other day and Aunt was crawling on my forearm. Such a tiny little fire ant. You feel that. You know something's on you, something so small. So you notice what you're touching and now something weird just noticed taste. What's in your mouth? Hmm. Yeah. What does it taste like? Dry, gross. Did something you regretted last night so not tasting too good. What's that taste? And now if you have a beverage, water or even the sensation of swallowing, if you want to feel that and taste that, what's the taste in your mouth? Come back to whatever sensation, the fullness of the whole body. Of how you exist and how you are right now. Everything combined. You're here. There's very moment right now doing whatever you're doing. And just take it all in. And thank yourself even though this was fairly short. Thank yourself for taking a pause in the middle of your life. It's almost like a snapshot. We're in video mode all the time, all the time. But it's nice to take those photos once in a while. Take a screenshot of life. Take a pause and see what's really happening in our bodies, in our environments, in our mouths. All of these things. This is important for me to do because I have these seasons and these impulsive months where I can just work, work, work. I can go crazy and just nonstop and completely laser focused. And I'm just on, getting up early is easy. Everything becomes so much easier too as far as my focus and attention span and the ability to absorb information. And that is dangerous if I don't take a stop and a pause like this because I get ahead of myself. And then that can lead to some sensation of burnout and then needing a day, a week, a month off because we went too hard. So if you get into patterns like that, this is also really important. In times where we start to overthink and our mind just gets 10 years ahead of us, 10 days ahead of us. Even sometimes 10 minutes ahead of us is too much to think about. Come back to a task that has structure. We need that kind of structure. No, I'm not talking about daily routine, but that's also important. But a structured exercise and something that's predictable for you to come back to. That's the beautiful thing of these tools. If it's something new you have to learn every single time, it's a little harder to be in the moment because you're worried. I don't mind doing that right. Okay, this is my first time. Am I going to get that right? How long is this going to take? I got to be back at this meeting at that time. I'm not sure. It's my first time. Once you develop a bit of a routine with this kind of thing, you just know, okay, here we go. Sight, sound, texture, taste, whole body. Taking a pause and a step back and sitting in the middle of life. And for me, that's really helpful, right? And I hope that's helpful for you. And just to play this recording again and listen again. When you need just a bit of a pause, come back here. When we think too far ahead, add a bit of structure. Sit in the middle. Thanks a lot, everyone. Appreciate it. And appreciate you listening. And I hope you have a wonderful day. And all the links are in the description. Of course, take care of yourself. And oh man, just enjoy. Just enjoy if you can, those little things. I'm excited to watch the Lord of the Rings, more of those special features. I'm so going to do that tonight. That is my Monday night. I can't wait. So thanks a lot. Have a great day. Bye-bye.