Dec. 30, 2024

Wearable technology for your Brain with Ariel Garten

Wearable technology for your Brain with Ariel Garten
The player is loading ...
Wearable technology for your Brain with Ariel Garten
Wearable technology for your Brain with Ariel Garten
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Castro podcast player icon PocketCasts podcast player icon Podchaser podcast player icon
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Castro podcast player icon PocketCasts podcast player icon Podchaser podcast player icon
Season 13 Psychology & Neuroscience Mindfulness & Acceptance Physical Health

This is an encore episode: Throwing back to 2019 when Cass interviewed Ariel Garten, the founder of the Muse Brain Sensing Headband.Meditation is a thousand year old practice but Ariel has found a way to bring that practice into the 21st century with her breakthrough technology Muse: The Brain Sensing Headband. Her mission is to help you do a deep dive in understanding your brain, getting real time feedback on your brain activity, breath, movement and heartbeat, as well as monitoring the quality of your sleep.Cass and Ariel discuss the things wearables can teach us about ourselves, how this technology can be reconciled with principles of mindfulness such as 'non-striving', and the benefits of getting real time feedback during your meditation.Take 20% off the Muse Brain Sensing Headband:https://www.choosemuse.com/cassdunn (or use code CASSDUNN to take 20% off at checkout if the discount is not automatically applied).Connect with Cass:www.crappytohappypod.comhello@crappytohappypod.com www.instagram.com/crappytohappypodwww.tiktok.com/crappytohappypodJoin the free 7-day Happiness Challenge:www.cassdunn.com/happiness

Connect with Cass:

www.cassdunn.com
www.instagram.com/cassdunn_xo

Contact Crappy to Happy:

Email: hello@crappytohappypod.com
www.crappytohappypod.com
www.instagram.com/crappytohappypod
www.tiktok.com/@crappytohappypod


Are you a coach, therapist, service provider or solopreneur struggling with self-doubt and imposter syndrome? I'd love to talk to you! (for market research purposes only!)

Book a call with me to share your experience.

Want more great content and less ads?

Upgrade to Paid in the Spotify or Apple podcasts App to get immediate access to "Beyond Happy", the subscriber only podcast featuring bonus content, meditations and more!

Transcript
WEBVTT

1
00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:08.679
This is Crappita Happy and I am your host, Cas Done.

2
00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:13.160
I'm a clinical and coaching psychologist. I'm mindfulness meditation teacher

3
00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:16.120
and of course author of the Crappita Happy books. In

4
00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:20.440
this show, I bring you conversations with interesting, inspiring, intelligent

5
00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:23.359
people who are experts in their field and who have

6
00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:25.800
something of value to share that will help you feel

7
00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:27.120
less crappy.

8
00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:27.600
And more happy.

9
00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:41.359
I have recently thrown myself back into my meditation practice

10
00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:45.600
with renewed vigor, knowing just how helpful it has always

11
00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.640
been to me in terms of managing my emotions and moods,

12
00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:53.679
improving my concentration and focus, and even supporting better sleep.

13
00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:58.240
So I pulled out my Muse brain sensing headband, which

14
00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:01.039
I haven't been using regularly for the past couple of years,

15
00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:04.519
and I have started using it again to track the

16
00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:07.959
quality of my meditation practice now. When I pulled it

17
00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:11.319
out and redownloaded the app, I was really pleasantly surprised

18
00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:13.480
to see a whole lot of new features in the app,

19
00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:18.159
including something called alpha peak frequency, which I don't quite

20
00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:21.519
understand but is a measure of cognitive performance, and also

21
00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:26.159
three D neural soundscapes from the Munro Institute, which are

22
00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:29.560
apparently quite famous for bynural beats and things like that.

23
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:30.519
So I was.

24
00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:33.400
Really excited by this and I wanted to tell you

25
00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:37.000
about it in case you are thinking of either beginning

26
00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:42.879
or restarting or improving your own meditation practice in the

27
00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:45.280
new year. I thought the best way to do this

28
00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:49.359
might actually be to throw back to my original conversation

29
00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:52.760
with Ariel Garten all the way back in twenty nineteen,

30
00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:55.319
I had her on the podcast. She is the founder

31
00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:59.120
of muse. Since then, it has really evolved, not just

32
00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:01.000
in terms of the function that I just told you about,

33
00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.040
but there is also now a musees headband which is

34
00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:06.480
soft so you can wear it around your head really

35
00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:10.039
comfortably for tracking your sleep. I want to tell you

36
00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:12.199
that I am an ambassador for MEW, so I became

37
00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:14.639
an ambassador a few years back in order to be

38
00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:17.120
able to pass on to you a discount. If you

39
00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:20.479
choose to buy your own MEWS headband, you get twenty

40
00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:23.960
percent off with my code. I genuinely love this product

41
00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:26.919
and I really want to share it with you, so

42
00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:29.520
I will put the link in my show notes to

43
00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:33.199
go directly to MEWS using my referral link. Without further ado,

44
00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:40.080
here is my chat with Ariel Garten. So, Ariel, I

45
00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:41.800
would like to just start with a little bit of

46
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.560
your background for our listeners. So, because you have an

47
00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:48.159
interesting background too, you have a background in the arts,

48
00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:51.520
am I right, psychotherapy, and neuroscience. Do you want to

49
00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:53.719
just tell us a little bit about your background.

50
00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:56.960
Sure. So my mom was an artist, so I always

51
00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.319
grew up thinking that you could imagine anything you wanted

52
00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:02.000
and bring it to life, because you'd make these beautiful canvasses.

53
00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:04.319
For anyone watching the video, there's actually one behind me.

54
00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:06.919
So I grew up in the world of the arts,

55
00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.680
but I was fascinated by science and how the world worked,

56
00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:12.759
and that fascination very quickly turned into the fascination with

57
00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:15.800
the self and understanding how the self worked. So I

58
00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:19.560
trained as a psychotherapist and a neuroscientist. And so I've

59
00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:23.039
spent a spent a decade being a psychotherapist in private practice,

60
00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:27.039
and then as a neuroscientist, developed this amazing device mus

61
00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:30.639
which actually reads your brain activity and gives you real

62
00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:34.400
time feedback during a variety of activities, including meditation. So

63
00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:37.560
I've spun the gamut from art to science, and I'm

64
00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:40.520
really fascinated by how you allow people to understand and

65
00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:42.240
transform what goes on in their own brain.

66
00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:44.840
Yeah, it is so interesting and I want to We

67
00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:47.479
will spend some time talking about the muse for sure,

68
00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:51.000
which is a brain sensing headband that you wear during meditation.

69
00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:53.439
It gives you real time feedback about what's happening in

70
00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:55.919
your brain in actually in a nutshell.

71
00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:57.280
Ye, so you got it.

72
00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:01.240
So before we get to that, what's your personal experience

73
00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:04.120
of meditation and sort of what inspired you to go

74
00:04:04.199 --> 00:04:06.280
down this path when it comes to all the things

75
00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:08.159
you could create with this technology.

76
00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:14.280
So I was a terrible meditator as a psychotherapist. I

77
00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:17.160
would be always recommending meditation to my patients. I would

78
00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:19.439
teach them how to meditate, and then I would go

79
00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:21.399
home and I would sit there and I'd try to

80
00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:23.480
let my mind focus on something and it would do

81
00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:25.160
a million things at once, and it'd be like, ah, man,

82
00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:28.560
this is so frustrating. And then my patients would come

83
00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:30.240
in and be like, so did you meditate this week?

84
00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:34.040
And they're like, oh, yeah, totally for like three minutes once.

85
00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:37.120
Yes, Okay, at least you're not lying to be like

86
00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:38.120
the other patient was.

87
00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:42.959
And when I started working with this very early brain

88
00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:45.839
computer interface technology, we did all sorts of crazy stuff

89
00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:48.439
with it, but it became really clear that if we

90
00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.480
wanted to help people in the world and help move

91
00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:54.360
the needle for humanity in some way, that if we

92
00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.279
could use this technology to teach people to meditate, we

93
00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:58.959
would be doing something really meaningful.

94
00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:01.480
I I relate so much to that because I'm a

95
00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:04.519
psychologist and I teach people meditation as well, and I'm

96
00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.439
not always the greatest at maintaining my own practice, but yes,

97
00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:10.839
how is the meditation practice? Like people couldn't sit for

98
00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:13.079
longer than three minutes. They would sit for three minutes

99
00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:17.079
maybe twice a week, and that's their limit. So I'm

100
00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:22.120
all for anything that helps people to do more of it,

101
00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:28.399
or to be encouraged or incentivized in some way to meditate,

102
00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:31.240
because obviously we know what the benefits are as a neuroscientist.

103
00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:33.600
Actually that leads me to, do you want to talk

104
00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:34.600
to some of the.

105
00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:37.160
Known benefits sure of mindfulness and meditation.

106
00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:39.639
So there are so many known benefits.

107
00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:42.879
If you look the letterature, there's over a thousand published

108
00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:47.720
studies talking about meditation's ability to improve your sleep, decrease

109
00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:52.040
your stress, improve your GRE scores, improve your productivity, improve

110
00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:56.439
your relationships, change your mood. Like the studies over and

111
00:05:56.519 --> 00:05:59.600
over and over again demonstrate meditation's ability to have meaningful

112
00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:03.120
impact in our mind, in our body. As an euroscientist,

113
00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:05.680
I can dive into the cool things that meditation can

114
00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:06.480
do for your brain.

115
00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:09.199
That's that sense, yeah, please cool.

116
00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:11.959
So at the front of our head over here, we

117
00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.600
have an area called the prefrontal cortex, and it's a

118
00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:17.040
sort of a higher order control center. It's the thing

119
00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:20.279
that allows us to think, organize, plan, It's the thing

120
00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:23.800
that we have that other mammals do not have. And

121
00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:26.839
as you age, unfortunately your prefrontal cortex thins.

122
00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:28.399
Bad news.

123
00:06:28.439 --> 00:06:30.319
But the good news is if you're able to maintain

124
00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:33.319
a long term meditation practice, you can maintain the thickness

125
00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:36.560
of your prefrontal cortex even as you age. So there's

126
00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.199
one study by doctor Sarah Lazarre at Harvard and she

127
00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.519
had a fifty year old long term meditator who had

128
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.120
the prefrontal cortex thickness of a twenty three year old.

129
00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:47.040
So moving back in the brain, so the prefrontal cortex

130
00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:50.040
lets you organize and plan behind it. We have in

131
00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:51.839
the middle of the brain, we have the amygdala, and

132
00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:54.639
the amigdala is your fight or flight response. It's the

133
00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:58.399
thing that's going like, ah, there's a fire, or ah,

134
00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:01.040
my pants are wrinkly and I'm walking into a meeting,

135
00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:03.800
or add that person across the room maybe doesn't like me.

136
00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:07.160
It's firing all the time, and not necessarily in ways

137
00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:09.639
that are always helpful to us. And when you look

138
00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:12.720
at somebody with a meditation practice, you can often see

139
00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:15.839
a decrease in amygdala activity, and if you look at

140
00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:18.079
a long term meditator, you may even see a decrease

141
00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:19.519
in the size of the amygdala.

142
00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:21.000
That's fascinating, yees.

143
00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:23.519
So we're seeing like real structural changes in the brain,

144
00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:26.720
and there's really a relationship between what's happening in the

145
00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:28.959
prefrontal cortex and what's happening in the amygdala. You can

146
00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.120
kind of think of the prefrontal cortex as the parent,

147
00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:34.639
as the thing that can plan and organize and see

148
00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:37.560
the world around it and see what's clearly going on,

149
00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:39.800
and the amygdala being the little three year old that

150
00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:41.800
wants to have a temper tantrum and freak out and

151
00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:45.839
is scared. And as you meditate, often part of what's

152
00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:49.439
going on is that you have an increase in prefrontal

153
00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:55.480
cortex control that down regulates the amygdala. So the wise

154
00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:58.399
parent is getting wiser and it's able to calm down

155
00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:03.360
the anxious scale child. And so meditation allows us to

156
00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:08.639
really in many ways, structurally change our brain potentially through

157
00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.480
both those dynamics and lots of other ones. So you

158
00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:15.399
also see cool things like increased connectivity through your corpus clossoms,

159
00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:18.319
so increased connectivity in the left and right brain. You

160
00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:21.000
can see increased size of the hippocampus, so learning in

161
00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:24.120
memory area. And you can even see changes in the

162
00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.560
an area called the temporal pridal junction, which is responsible

163
00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:29.959
for compassion, empathy, and perspective taking.

164
00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:34.240
It's really interesting stuff and I love that because I think,

165
00:08:34.279 --> 00:08:35.960
you know, obviously, for a long time we knew that

166
00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:40.200
people felt better, they felt more calm. But knowing that

167
00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:44.840
that is actually the result of actual structural changes in

168
00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:47.039
your brain, that is, it is actually changing you at

169
00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:49.840
a cellular level, is so interesting.

170
00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:53.000
It is fascinating. So it can change you to cellular

171
00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:55.440
level in your mind. It can also change you to

172
00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:57.080
cellular level in your body.

173
00:08:57.399 --> 00:08:59.600
Go talk and we'll let's do it.

174
00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:00.679
So this is some.

175
00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:04.279
Super cool stuff that comes out of doctor Elizabeth Blackburn's lab.

176
00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:08.039
Doctor Elizabeth Blackburn is a Nobel Prize winning scientist. She's

177
00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:13.440
not some weird woo woo hippie scientist. And what she

178
00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:18.360
looked at was the length of one's telomeres. So, the

179
00:09:18.440 --> 00:09:20.440
telomeres are the protective caps on.

180
00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:21.519
The end of your DNA.

181
00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:24.080
So in the same way that on your shoelace, you

182
00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:26.799
have a little piece of plastic at the end that

183
00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.360
once it unravels, your shoelace unravels. So too, we have

184
00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:33.679
these little telomeres at the end and they protect the DNA.

185
00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:36.360
And as you age, they get shorter and shorter. They

186
00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:39.279
are a marker of cellular aging, so they can show

187
00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:40.799
how old the organism is.

188
00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:41.799
How much it is aged.

189
00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:46.320
As you age, the telomeres get shorter and shorter. Well,

190
00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:49.759
it turns out that when you give somebody a meditation practice,

191
00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:53.720
there's the potential for those telomeres to actually start increasing again.

192
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:58.159
And in doctor Blackburn's landmark study, she showed that moms

193
00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:02.240
who are chronically stressed, caring chronically ill children when they

194
00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:04.679
were given a meditation practice, we're actually able to increase

195
00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:07.600
the length of they're telomeres. And that finding has been

196
00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:11.360
replicated over and over and over again in various populations

197
00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:12.799
and average populations as well.

198
00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:18.399
So we're literally slowing, potentially reversing the aging process potentially.

199
00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:22.320
I mean, it's an incredibly big claim to me. Look

200
00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:24.759
at the literature, there's some pretty interesting conclusions that you

201
00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:25.399
can come to.

202
00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:28.919
And Ariel, are you aware of any of the research.

203
00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:32.000
I'm just curious about because I know that there's also

204
00:10:32.039 --> 00:10:37.320
studies about compassion meditation specifically, for example, basically turning off

205
00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:39.320
and on the genes for disease.

206
00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:41.720
Have you read any of that research?

207
00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:47.279
Yeah, so you're referring to meditation's ability to have an

208
00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:51.720
epigenetic yessact in the body. Yes, yes, So overall, when

209
00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:55.360
we look at the meditation literature, there's just like we

210
00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:58.759
were turning on the gene for telomerase, telamerase being the

211
00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:02.240
enzyme that would lengthen your telomeres. We can also through

212
00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.919
meditation turn potentially turn on and off gens in your

213
00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:08.440
body that increase your immune system, that help you go

214
00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:12.840
onto rest and digest that in general improve the health

215
00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:15.720
of the organism. Overall, it's not a panacea. I don't

216
00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:19.120
want to oversell it, but there's fascinating avenues that the

217
00:11:19.159 --> 00:11:20.039
literature points.

218
00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:20.799
To pretty compelling.

219
00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:25.519
So even though we know all of this, and even

220
00:11:25.559 --> 00:11:27.759
you and I like, even knowing all of this stuff,

221
00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:32.120
get to get people to sit down and spend ten minutes,

222
00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:38.120
fifteen minutes, five minutes just focusing on their breath is

223
00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:41.159
it seems like it's the hardest thing for people to do.

224
00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:44.039
There's every excuse to not do it. They can't find

225
00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:47.120
the time to do it, it's too uncomfortable. What's going on?

226
00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:51.000
We've got all the information. What is it that stops

227
00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:52.159
us being able to do this?

228
00:11:52.600 --> 00:11:54.519
It's a good question, and I mean I've seen it

229
00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.240
over and over and over again, and for some people

230
00:11:57.320 --> 00:11:59.399
it was like, oh, well, meditation is woo woo. But

231
00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:02.519
that perception, I think has gone away at this point.

232
00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:05.720
Everybody knows they should be meditating. It's, you know, part

233
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:08.799
of a balanced lifestyle. You eat well, you brush your teeth,

234
00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:11.399
you go to the gym, and you meditate. And most

235
00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.120
people manage the first two. The going to the gym

236
00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:17.320
is much harder, and meditation's like way off the spectrum. Yeah,

237
00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:19.960
And I think for most people, you know, you sit down,

238
00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:22.159
most people don't know exactly what meditation is.

239
00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:24.559
So there's the perception that meditation is letting your mind go.

240
00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:26.720
Blank, which it's not exactly.

241
00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:30.799
So when you're doing a basic meditation, what you're probably

242
00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:33.080
doing is focusing your attention on your breath. You're putting

243
00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:35.720
your focused attention on a single point. Your mind then

244
00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:38.320
begins to wander. You notice it wanders, and you return

245
00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:40.279
it to your breath. And you don't get mad at

246
00:12:40.279 --> 00:12:42.960
yourself that your mind wanders, because all of our minds wander.

247
00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:45.799
What you're just trying to do is notice and return.

248
00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:49.360
And so I think most people don't know what meditation

249
00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.720
even is, how you're supposed to do it, And then

250
00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:53.480
when you do sit down to do it, your mind

251
00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:55.519
wanders all over the place, and so we create all

252
00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:57.480
sorts of judgment about it, and we're like, oh my god,

253
00:12:57.519 --> 00:12:59.159
I suck at this, and you don't like being bad

254
00:12:59.159 --> 00:12:59.440
at things.

255
00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:01.480
It makes us feel mutch about ourselves. Yeah, and so

256
00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:02.840
then we just get up and we don't do it.

257
00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:04.399
Yeah, that's so true.

258
00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:06.720
That's voice of self criticism chimes in very quickly and

259
00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:07.960
then we do anything to avoid that.

260
00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:10.320
And the funny, you know, the ironic part is that

261
00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:13.440
meditation teaches you to deal with that itself criticism. That's

262
00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:17.600
really a big part of the process. You observe the judgment,

263
00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:20.600
you let the judgment pass too. You observe the criticism, you.

264
00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:21.080
Let it go.

265
00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:25.919
But only once you sit in the practice and steepen

266
00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:27.799
it can you get to the point where even comfortable

267
00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:29.480
facing the judgment in that way.

268
00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:30.399
Yeah.

269
00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:34.399
I read a study where people would rather administer electric

270
00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:37.279
shocks to themselves than be with their own thoughts for

271
00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:43.000
five silent minutes. They would actually shock themselves rather than

272
00:13:43.080 --> 00:13:46.200
sit alone with their own thoughts. It's a frightening it's

273
00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:50.840
a frightening concept, but it's true. So the Muse headband,

274
00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:55.639
which you've created, how do you think it helps to

275
00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:59.639
counteract some of that or to you know, encourage people

276
00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:01.600
to to see it for long.

277
00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:05.279
Yeah, it's been very successful teaching people to sit right

278
00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:07.799
at all and then for longer. And so what news

279
00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:09.840
does is it gives you real time feedback on your

280
00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:13.120
brain while you meditate. So it answers that first question

281
00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:14.960
of what am I supposed to be doing? And then

282
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:17.720
it also answers the second question people typically have, which

283
00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:19.080
is am I even doing this right?

284
00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:19.360
Like?

285
00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:21.159
What am I supposed to be doing? What's going on

286
00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:22.840
in my mind? Is this working?

287
00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:27.320
And so with NEWS, we're literally reading your brain weaveh activity,

288
00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:30.320
We're reading your brain, and we're letting you know when

289
00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.840
you're quote unquote doing it right, when you're in focused

290
00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:35.440
attention and when your mind is wandered, queuing you to

291
00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:37.120
when your mind is wandered, so that you're cue to

292
00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:39.559
come back to your breath. It's kind of like having

293
00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:42.159
rumble strips for the road. It's like you're going down

294
00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:44.039
the right path. Hope you're going off, Come on back,

295
00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:46.440
You're going off, come on back. And so we're able

296
00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:49.279
to take real time feedback that really teaches you what

297
00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:53.000
to do and reinforces you and holds your hand using

298
00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.840
super solid neuroscience. And then at the end you're actually

299
00:14:56.840 --> 00:14:58.840
able to see what your brain is doing. So you

300
00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:02.720
have charts, graphs, Dad's gammification stuff that makes it fun

301
00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:05.200
to meditate and to come back and do it session

302
00:15:05.240 --> 00:15:06.399
after session after session.

303
00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:09.480
And I have been using a muse for the last

304
00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:13.960
few weeks, and so just to explain to anybody listening.

305
00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:16.799
What happens is you put it on a wrap it

306
00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:19.919
around your head, just tucks behind your ears, and then

307
00:15:21.159 --> 00:15:23.600
you have an app on your phone which will tell

308
00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:27.240
you to start meditating, and it collects the data. And

309
00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:29.279
then what happens is you've got earphones in or you

310
00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:31.480
listen to sound on your phone, and so as your

311
00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:34.840
brain becomes more active. I know there's lots of different

312
00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:36.480
sounds you can do, but the basic one is that

313
00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:39.279
storms whip up. Right, wind picks up, it becomes noisy

314
00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:43.559
and windy, and then when your brain calms down, it

315
00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:47.879
becomes very quiet. And so the whole time you're sitting

316
00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:50.120
it's like it's, well, it's a bit windy.

317
00:15:50.279 --> 00:15:53.519
Oh it's quiet. Oh it's a bit windy. Oh it's quiet.

318
00:15:54.679 --> 00:15:58.120
So initially I found that I normally meditate in silence.

319
00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:00.440
I've been doing it for quite a long time. Initially

320
00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:03.440
I found that a little distracting, and initially I was

321
00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:07.080
questioning ask on but I was not thinking, then.

322
00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:07.480
Why is that wind up?

323
00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:10.559
Why is it doing that? Because my mom was very calm.

324
00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:12.960
Then I'll have you know, like a someone was arguing

325
00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.559
with the device. But eventually you do learn to kind

326
00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:17.279
of tune it out.

327
00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:20.879
So for somebody who doesn't have a meditation practice, it's

328
00:16:20.919 --> 00:16:23.360
not distracting from your practice. It's just like, Okay, now

329
00:16:23.399 --> 00:16:25.559
I'm learning, and I actually have a teacher in my head.

330
00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:28.879
And for those who do have a practice, very quickly

331
00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.480
it just becomes this intuitive sense that the sound is

332
00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:34.240
your brain. Yes, And so you're hearing when your brain

333
00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:36.840
is noisy and stormy and when your brain is quiet.

334
00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:39.399
And then when you stay super quiet you get birds,

335
00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:40.360
which people love.

336
00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.360
Little birds chirp, and it's so satisfying to get the

337
00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:45.519
little bird chirping, it really is.

338
00:16:45.559 --> 00:16:48.519
And it's like a little gold star, which leads me to.

339
00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:57.279
When obviously I've trained in mindfulness, meditation, mindfuless, space, cognitive therapy,

340
00:16:57.399 --> 00:17:00.879
I've done you know, silent retreats, done a lot of Buddhists, meditation,

341
00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:05.640
and the whole thing is about non striving. But technically

342
00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:08.400
mindfulness is about the one thing that you can do

343
00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:11.440
that does not need you to be doing.

344
00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:13.079
Anything or striving to achieve anything.

345
00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:15.759
And yet built into the meuse is this kind of

346
00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.000
you kind of want to get the birds, So it's

347
00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:20.400
got this striving aspect to it.

348
00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:23.119
Can you talk about that.

349
00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:25.000
Because initially I was thinking, oh, but doesn't that just

350
00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:28.200
fly in the face of what mindfulness is all about.

351
00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:31.319
So the funny thing is is that the birds are

352
00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:35.319
actually there to undermine the goal directed nature of the gamification.

353
00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:37.880
So the first time you get a bird, you're like, okay,

354
00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:39.640
a bird, saying that's nice.

355
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.480
And then as soon as you find out that it's

356
00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:44.240
a reward, you then try to get the birds and

357
00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:46.759
try to get a bird. You can't do it because

358
00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:50.880
now you're striking, you're focusing, and you can only really

359
00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:53.880
get birds by letting go. And then so you can

360
00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:56.799
only get it by non striving. And then often once

361
00:17:56.839 --> 00:17:58.839
people get their first bird, when they know what a

362
00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:00.640
bird is, they're like, oh my god, the reward.

363
00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:02.000
And then your bird flies away and.

364
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:03.400
Then the storms come up again. As soon as you

365
00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:04.119
get the bird, it's gone.

366
00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:04.279
Yea.

367
00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:07.279
So it suddenly teaches you to be just as uninvested

368
00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:10.359
in your rewards as your failures, to be just as

369
00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.359
non judgmental, and when you get a reward as non

370
00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:13.640
judgmental when you get a failure.

371
00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:16.400
That to me, that is because that has definitely been

372
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:19.480
my experience after using the muse. You know, the more

373
00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:21.920
often that I've used it, and the more that I've

374
00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:26.119
become kind of just used to it now, I don't

375
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:29.160
I know that I no longer sort of react whether

376
00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:32.559
it's a bird, whether it's a storm. Just keep on breathing,

377
00:18:32.839 --> 00:18:34.079
just keep on meditating.

378
00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.640
And so we have this gamification with points and scores

379
00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.000
that people are excited about when they come in, and

380
00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:43.440
very quickly it moves from the extrinsic reward of points

381
00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:46.240
and structure that keeps you doing it to the intrinsic

382
00:18:46.359 --> 00:18:48.839
reward of seeing the value, and then you don't care

383
00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:51.440
about the points anymore. Really doesn't mean anything, but it's

384
00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:53.440
the thing that got you into the practice and kept

385
00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:55.839
you there and kept you there long enough to get

386
00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:58.039
you to the point where you've established a regular practice,

387
00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.400
you understand how to do it, and you actually feeling

388
00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:01.880
the benefits in your life.

389
00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:04.319
And once you feel the benefits, then you're hot.

390
00:19:06.279 --> 00:19:09.039
I hope you're enjoying season four of the show, and hey,

391
00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:10.839
I would love for you to check out my brand

392
00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:13.759
new YouTube channel where I'm sharing even more tips on

393
00:19:13.799 --> 00:19:16.359
how you can feel less crappy and more happy. It's

394
00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:19.039
YouTube dot com Forward slash Cast Done.

395
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:20.119
So come over check it out.

396
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.559
I'd love for you to subscribe, and if you haven't

397
00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:25.559
already taken my free seven day happiness challenge, you can

398
00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:31.079
sign up for that at castdone dot com forward slash happiness.

399
00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:36.680
So it does sense your brain activity.

400
00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:38.720
But I notice I've got the news too, which is

401
00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:42.440
the latest one, and I notice in the app I

402
00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:44.759
haven't done a lot of it, but there's a there's

403
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:46.599
a heart, and there's a body like I did the

404
00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:49.079
body one. So its sense is you're when you physically

405
00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:52.400
are moving so that you stay still, and then there's

406
00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:53.680
a heart one.

407
00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:55.200
Is it actually measuring.

408
00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:57.319
Your heart beat while you meditate? Do you want to

409
00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:00.279
talk about all the different sort of functions of the

410
00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:00.960
me is sure?

411
00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:04.160
So in the original muse, we give you real time

412
00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:06.960
feedback on your brain and that's been out for the

413
00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:09.640
last five years and it's super successful. Hundreds of thousands

414
00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:12.359
of people use it every day. And then use two,

415
00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:14.799
which just came out last year, gives you real time

416
00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:17.559
feedback both on your brain as well as your heart,

417
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:21.279
your breath, and your body. So it has additional sensors.

418
00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:24.519
There's a PPG sensor that tracks your heart rate and

419
00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:26.880
you actually hear the beating of your heart like the

420
00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:29.440
beating of a drum, and it tunes something called your

421
00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:32.960
inter reception, your ability to actually understand sensitively what's going

422
00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:35.839
on inside your own body. And then the body sensor

423
00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:38.839
is able to sense your movement, so it helps you

424
00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:41.839
find comfortable posture and it helps you find stillness. And

425
00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:44.799
for a lot of people, finding stillness is the first step.

426
00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:47.000
And once you find stillness in your body, it's easier

427
00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:48.279
to find stillness in your mind.

428
00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:50.160
I went to do the body one and I put

429
00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:51.279
it on my head, and then I went to look

430
00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:53.279
at my app and it said, stop you moving too much.

431
00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:55.160
We can't we can't get a reading it you as

432
00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:57.759
soon as I just turned my head towards it to

433
00:20:57.799 --> 00:20:58.559
look at my phone.

434
00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:00.720
Yeah, that's the don't look at your phone worn it.

435
00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:05.839
Yes, you're meditating building to your phone. And then the breath.

436
00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:08.960
The breath sensor actually senses your breath, and we have

437
00:21:09.079 --> 00:21:13.400
guided breathing exercises, so in the heart meditation, you can

438
00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:15.920
learn to hear when your heart breed is increasing and

439
00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:19.039
when it's decreasing. And then in breath meditation, we teach

440
00:21:19.079 --> 00:21:22.440
you breath patterns to teach you to increase your decrease

441
00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:25.559
your heart rate, and to be able to potentially affect

442
00:21:25.559 --> 00:21:26.680
your heart rate variability.

443
00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:30.480
So obviously with mindfulness meditation for anybody unfamiliar, you know,

444
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:32.960
part of it is also tuning into the sensations in

445
00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:35.559
your body. We tend to walk around the world, we're

446
00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:39.759
very cerebral. We've engaged with world through our thinking mind,

447
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:43.640
and we've become quite disconnected with our physical sensations as

448
00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:46.839
a whole world of like information and intuition and wisdom

449
00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:49.039
stored in our body. And so we connect with the

450
00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:51.720
sensations in our body like in a body scanned meditation.

451
00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:55.599
So with the muse, that's one of its functions, I guess,

452
00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:58.880
to help you to really connect inward to what's happening.

453
00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:02.359
Yep, to be able to start to sensitively understand what's

454
00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:06.000
going on in your different systems, and meditation occurs throughout

455
00:22:06.039 --> 00:22:10.599
the whole body. So meditation is partly about stilling the

456
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:14.119
mind and changing your relationship to your thoughts. It's also

457
00:22:14.200 --> 00:22:19.480
about being able to understand and use your physiology positively

458
00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.480
to help you relax. So when you take deep breaths,

459
00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:25.480
it becomes a cute to your autonomic nervous system to

460
00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:29.759
calm down. So when we learn deep breathing patterns, we

461
00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:32.640
recognize that we can begin to shift our bodies physiology

462
00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:35.680
out of fight and flight and into rest and digest,

463
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:38.599
and that changes our heart rate and that has a

464
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:41.839
feed forward effect which is then able to calm the mind.

465
00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:45.480
So all these systems really work synergistically with one another

466
00:22:45.799 --> 00:22:47.880
to help us get into an optimal state.

467
00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:48.759
It's amazing.

468
00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:51.799
You can really see the progress session after session, and

469
00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:55.279
like we have users who've done literally thousands of sessions

470
00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:57.400
and you can see the progress.

471
00:22:57.480 --> 00:22:59.119
They see the progress over time.

472
00:22:59.240 --> 00:23:03.119
And hopefully trying lating then as you say, into their lives,

473
00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:05.599
then really realizing the benefits in their day to day life,

474
00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:06.480
which is where it counts.

475
00:23:06.599 --> 00:23:08.400
And you can even see progress over you know, the

476
00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:10.200
first five or ten sessions that you do.

477
00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:10.759
Yeah, you know.

478
00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:12.839
I'll sit with people during their first few sessions and

479
00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:14.839
they can immediately start to see how their mind is

480
00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:19.599
calming down, how they're getting the practice. I just ran

481
00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:22.039
a session with a number of people for three weeks

482
00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:24.720
and like the changes that they were noticing in their

483
00:23:24.759 --> 00:23:29.759
lives after the first two weeks were amazing. Shifting relationships

484
00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:31.799
to how they were yelling, you know, yelling at their husband,

485
00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:34.039
how they dealt with stress at work, how you know,

486
00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:36.599
how sleep was for them. It can take varying lengths

487
00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:40.759
of time for people to find ease with the practice

488
00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:42.720
and start to see the changes, but it can be

489
00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:45.279
surprising what you might find when you start doing it.

490
00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:48.200
So Aril, just looping back to the beginning of our

491
00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:51.440
conversation when you said that you you know, even you

492
00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:53.880
as a psychotherapist teaching people to meditate, you know, you

493
00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:55.480
found it really difficult.

494
00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:01.119
And for you as a woman. Now you have got young.

495
00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:04.480
Children, right I do a three year old three year.

496
00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:07.400
Old, and you have were a sea of a major

497
00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:11.920
company for seven years. You've stepped down now with having children,

498
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:16.480
but you know, busy working mum professional. How has it

499
00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:20.559
helped you? What's how has it helped you to build

500
00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:22.960
your own meditation practice? What have you noticed in your

501
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:23.519
own life?

502
00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:27.119
So, first of all, I literally learned to meditate using news.

503
00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:30.559
I had read so many books, I had, you know,

504
00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:33.400
so many resources, but it wasn't until I actually started

505
00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:35.680
regularly using music I was like, oh, this is what

506
00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:37.839
I'm supposed to be doing. Okay, now I get it.

507
00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:39.440
And then all of a sudden, you know, the two

508
00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:41.759
thousand years of history that I've been reading made sense.

509
00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:46.480
And once I started to do that, the benefits were fascinating.

510
00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:47.920
So one of the first things I noticed was an

511
00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:52.640
increase in my productivity. I was typing a long format document,

512
00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:55.440
which would normally take me forever because I was the

513
00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:57.200
year of the company. I was in an open office.

514
00:24:57.240 --> 00:24:59.440
You know, everybody going past me I felt like needed

515
00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:02.279
me in some way. It was always distracting, and for

516
00:25:02.359 --> 00:25:04.839
the first time, I sat down and I wrote something,

517
00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:07.319
just all the way through in my open office, with

518
00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:08.279
all the sounds around me.

519
00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:10.000
Yeah, I see your face.

520
00:25:10.119 --> 00:25:11.319
Yes, I was shocked.

521
00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:12.440
I was like, what just happened?

522
00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:14.680
Well, it turns out the practice that I had learned

523
00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:17.480
that taught me to notice when my mind is wandering

524
00:25:17.880 --> 00:25:20.000
and then move away from the distraction back to the

525
00:25:20.119 --> 00:25:24.680
object of my focus translated beautifully to my own productivity.

526
00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:26.680
It's like my mind would begin to wander, nope, back

527
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:29.519
to my document, begin to wander, nope, back to my document.

528
00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:32.039
And the next thing I noticed was my cell phone

529
00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:35.400
behavior changed. You know, that urge to constantly check the

530
00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:38.000
phone just started to sort of Peter away, because I'd

531
00:25:38.039 --> 00:25:40.480
feel that sensation of like, oh, check my actually, no,

532
00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:42.319
I don't care, back to what I'm doing in front

533
00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:45.839
of me. And so I started to notice that my

534
00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.559
you know, my impulses and my urges and desires all

535
00:25:49.559 --> 00:25:53.480
of a sudden became much wiser and much easier to manage,

536
00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:58.200
just naturally. And then from there the emotional changes also

537
00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:02.000
began to take place. You know, my dialogues aka arguments

538
00:26:02.039 --> 00:26:04.599
with my husband. There was no longer the sense of

539
00:26:05.160 --> 00:26:06.640
I need to be right and I need to like

540
00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:08.759
see this fifty thousand times so that you hear me.

541
00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:10.400
I would just say it once and then I hear

542
00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:11.880
what he said, and then they'd be like oh, and

543
00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:14.480
then I could just reflect on it. It wasn't this constant,

544
00:26:14.599 --> 00:26:21.000
you know, reactivity shit inside of me. Yeah, reactivity like needs,

545
00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:25.240
My needs presented themselves and that I could articulate them.

546
00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:27.759
It wasn't quite as straightforward as that. But you know,

547
00:26:27.799 --> 00:26:29.880
standing back, it was kind of like an astonishing shift.

548
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:31.920
But that's the point is that that's that's really interesting,

549
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:34.359
And that's the point, isn't it. Like people who say,

550
00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:36.640
what's the point, Like, what is the I consider and

551
00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:37.319
focus on my breath.

552
00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:38.200
But what's the point.

553
00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:41.640
It's because that is learning to train your mind to

554
00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:44.079
go where you want it to go, not where it

555
00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:47.960
wants to go, and then applying that to work and

556
00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:51.720
focus and the people in your life. You a conversation

557
00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:53.599
that you're having, whatever it might.

558
00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:54.559
Be, negative thoughts.

559
00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:57.160
Yes, so you know, for a lot of people, so

560
00:26:57.200 --> 00:26:59.759
we have these internal dialogues, and for a lot of people,

561
00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:02.720
those internal dialogues are negative and unpleasant and just keep

562
00:27:02.759 --> 00:27:05.079
you feeling a little bit shittier than you need to

563
00:27:05.240 --> 00:27:08.480
every single day. And when you learn that you have

564
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:11.799
a choice about the dialogue in your head, that you

565
00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:14.200
can hear something inside your head and say, actually, I'm

566
00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:15.839
going to choose to take my attention elsewhere.

567
00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:18.160
I don't need to be caught up in you right now.

568
00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:23.880
It's an unbelievable sense of freedom, an unbelievable shift in

569
00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:27.599
what who you are because you are no longer those

570
00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:30.480
dialogues in your head. You're an individual with agency and

571
00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:32.319
a choice of how you are living.

572
00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:35.400
I would have to agree. I think that's so important,

573
00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:37.119
and that's certainly in the work that I do. I

574
00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:40.759
hear people all the time say they feel powerless, like

575
00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:42.640
this is just who I am. I just can't stop this,

576
00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:44.680
my mind just does this, or I just do this,

577
00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:49.000
And it's giving people back that power over the thoughts

578
00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:53.000
in the head, the managing those urges and impulses and

579
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:53.799
that reactivity.

580
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:55.119
Like, you do have a choice in this.

581
00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:56.880
These might be old patterns that you've had for a

582
00:27:56.920 --> 00:27:59.599
really long time, but with some awareness and with some

583
00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:03.480
present you know, some present minded awareness, then you do

584
00:28:03.559 --> 00:28:06.480
have a choice about how much impact they have those

585
00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:07.160
things have over you.

586
00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:12.279
Yes, it's extremely empowering, and that's why it was so

587
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:15.039
clear that you know, for me and my team that

588
00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:17.240
this is what we needed to build, that this was

589
00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:19.720
the best possible thing we could apply our lives to.

590
00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:21.759
You know, when you look at the fact that eighty

591
00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:24.119
five percent of the world has low self esteem and

592
00:28:24.119 --> 00:28:26.839
that we're all pulled by these urges that just don't

593
00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:29.599
serve us, it's like, how can we help humanity by

594
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:30.599
teaching them to meditate?

595
00:28:31.079 --> 00:28:35.880
This must be personally just so rewarding for you beyond Yes,

596
00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:42.000
so Ariel, for our listeners who perhaps like like you were,

597
00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:44.279
and like many people are, who struggle to just get

598
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:48.039
started with a meditation practice and who don't necessarily have

599
00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:51.519
their hands on amuse today. What advice do you have

600
00:28:51.599 --> 00:28:54.519
to help people to just start to get started with

601
00:28:54.599 --> 00:28:56.759
some sort of mindfulness meditation practice.

602
00:28:57.079 --> 00:29:00.200
So the first thing is meditation is not complicated, it's

603
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.519
not weird. It's really simple and a focused attention practice.

604
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:05.519
You're just going to focus your attention on your breath.

605
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:08.480
Your mind will begin to wander. At some point you'll

606
00:29:08.519 --> 00:29:10.839
notice that it's wandered away from your breath, and then you'll.

607
00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:13.920
Return it to your breath. That's it, and you'll do it.

608
00:29:13.880 --> 00:29:17.880
Over and over and over again. Doesn't matter where you're sitting.

609
00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:19.319
You don't need to be in a mat, you don't

610
00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:21.240
need to be in half lotus, you don't need to

611
00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:23.440
have candles, you don't need anything. You can do it

612
00:29:23.480 --> 00:29:27.000
anywhere anytime. You're just going to sit there. Set aside

613
00:29:27.039 --> 00:29:31.079
a time to do it. It's useful to do a timer.

614
00:29:31.319 --> 00:29:33.359
You can start with three or five minutes, a very

615
00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:36.000
short period of time, and then you just sit there

616
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:38.599
and you focus your attention on your breath. Your mind wanders,

617
00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:41.880
you notice any return until your timer goes off. And

618
00:29:41.960 --> 00:29:44.720
if you do that, you'll totally meditated.

619
00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:45.440
You've meditated.

620
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:49.039
And I would say even somebody potentially listening to this episode.

621
00:29:49.160 --> 00:29:51.039
They're on the tram or they're on the train going

622
00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:53.799
to work. You could just set the timer right now

623
00:29:54.119 --> 00:29:56.920
and just do it right now, Just breethe focus on

624
00:29:56.960 --> 00:29:59.599
your breath. Your mind will wander. That's what minds do.

625
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:03.039
That's not a problem. Come back to the breath. I

626
00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:04.640
would love that. I think we should put that challenge.

627
00:30:04.680 --> 00:30:06.880
If you're listening to this right now, get to the

628
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:10.680
end of the episode, save your timer and spend three

629
00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:13.440
minutes focusing on your breath, and you've meditated.

630
00:30:13.079 --> 00:30:14.559
And we are cheering for you right now.

631
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:19.920
Satadly Ariel, I have really loved having you on the show.

632
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:22.559
I appreciate your time so much. I know it's nighttime

633
00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:26.079
where you are. You've dialed in after your whole dinner, bath,

634
00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:28.880
bed routine. I just want to say thank you so much,

635
00:30:28.920 --> 00:30:31.119
and I hope that people will go out and have

636
00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:33.279
a look for the muse, and if not, I hope

637
00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:36.119
they will at least be encouraged and inspired to start

638
00:30:36.119 --> 00:30:37.599
some sort of meditation practice.

639
00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:39.519
Thank you so much, it has been such a joy

640
00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:40.079
and pleasure.

641
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:42.480
Crappy to Have You is created and produced by me

642
00:30:42.680 --> 00:30:45.119
castun If you enjoy the show, Please hit the follow

643
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:47.880
button wherever you listen to ensure you never miss an episode.

644
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:49.680
Share with a friend to get me into the ears

645
00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:51.559
of more lovely listeners, and I would love for you

646
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:53.920
to leave a five star rating and review to hear

647
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:55.880
more about how to join the beyond Happy community in

648
00:30:55.880 --> 00:30:58.279
twenty twenty five, make sure you subscribe to the show

649
00:30:58.440 --> 00:31:00.559
or to my email list. Can fund a link to

650
00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:03.160
my websitecast done dot com. Thank you so much for

651
00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:05.119
being here and I cannot wait to catch you next

652
00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:09.799
week for another fabulous episode of Crappy to Happy