Stop Absorbing Everyone’s Stress

(clicking) (calm music) Headspace Studio. Hi, I'm Dora, and welcome to Radio Headspace. The other day I saw a lighthearted video that came up with an unexpected life lesson. It starts with a mom in total panic mode. She's tearing through the house, looking under couch cushions, checking the fridge, and opening up cupboards because she can't find her keys. Her daughter who's filming this then zooms in on their dog, who's sitting calmly by the front door, stoic and confident. And then we hear the daughter say, "Look at your hand, mom." And you guessed it. The mom had been holding the keys the entire time, and it feels like the dog knew she'd figure it out eventually. He doesn't react. There's no judgment or excitement or frustration. He just sits with total patience. Today I wanna talk about mountains and how they can remind us that in the middle of chaos, real stability comes from within. Because that dog, he was the mountain. And the mom, while she was the ever changing landscape, the weather and commotion that surrounds the mountain. This reminds me of a well-known teaching in mindfulness that speaks to the unwavering presence of mountains. No matter the weather, the mountain remains its true essential self. Despite external conditions like rain, snow, spring, fall, winter, the mountain remains steady and grounded. In fact, there's a mindfulness practice where we're invited to imagine being sat in front of a mountain and bringing those same qualities of groundedness, balance, and steadiness into our own being. As thoughts, distractions, chaos arise, we're invited to see them as the weather. The wind blows, the rain falls, but the mountain doesn't chase after the storm. It simply is. And suddenly that video made even more sense to me. I like to think that the dog wasn't ignoring the chaos. He was simply waiting because he knew everything would settle on its own, and maybe we can take a little inspiration from that. For the longest time, I thought being responsible meant reacting quickly, answering emails right away, jumping on problems the second they popped up, saying yes to everything. And the results, I was in constant motion. Every little urgency pulled me into its orbit. Someone else's stress became my stress. Someone else's bad mood, absorbed it like a sponge. After many years of practice, before I dive into my emails or rush into my day, I take a few moments to slow down, not to be productive or to think of the right response, but just to see what would happen if I didn't react right away. Lo and behold, the world doesn't end and the work doesn't disappear. However, I am able to feel steadier and less frantic. I started asking myself, what actually needs my attention? What's real and what's just noise? And when the inevitable rush of tasks and expectations come at me, I remind myself I am the mountain and this is just weather. We...