Planted in the Present

(air whooshing) (mouse clicking) (refreshingly bright music) Headspace Studios. Hi, and welcome to Radio Headspace, and to this brand new week. It's Eve here. I hope you had a nice weekend. So I'm going to kick off today with a question. When was the last time you felt the sensation of your feet grounded on the floor? I know this might seem like a silly question, but how often are you present with the sensations in your body? So maybe try it now. Whether you're sitting down or standing up, just pause. Perhaps take a deep breath and guide your awareness to your feet. Noticing the different points of contact. Maybe the weight of your body is leaning more to one foot than the other. And noticing any sensations that might be present. Maybe a tingling, a tightness, warmth, coolness. It's no problem if you don't feel any sensations. Just breathing normally as you do this. Both feet grounded on the floor, bringing your awareness to all the toes, the heel, the arch of your feet. And noticing if the mind is taking you off somewhere else. And each time coming back to the sensation of your feet. Okay, thank you for indulging me on this. This was a mini-moment of mindfulness, paying attention on purpose, and bringing our awareness into the present moment. And I bring this up as so often our mind and body can feel pretty disconnected. We might be physically present but our mind could be somewhere else entirely different. You know when you're having a conversation with someone and it feels like they're a million miles away. Or perhaps, you've been the person who is a million miles away, and the conversation feels disjointed. And it can end up being a really frustrating, perhaps even stressful scenario. Now, this is just one small example, but there are so many situations where the mind and body feel like they're not working together, and it can have pretty eventful consequences. Especially when we're faced with a stressful or a difficult situation. Here at Headspace, we're very fortunate to have every other Friday as a day in which we can take some time for our mind. Anyway, I was really, really looking forward to this particular Friday, as it's been a seriously busy few weeks. And I was feeling quite tired. But on Thursday, late afternoon, I got an email asking for a press interview for Friday. Yep, the Friday I had planned to take some time for myself. But it was a good opportunity and it felt crazy to turn down. But as I was reading the email, I could feel my chest tighten, a slightly anxious feeling in my stomach arise, my breathing shortened. And before I knew it, I was typing up a response to the team, really venting my frustrations. Thankfully, I did notice what I was doing. And realized that this would've been a very unhelpful email to send, and one that I would've...