Unlock Profound Change Through Connection

(light swishing) (light clicking) (soft chiming music) Headspace Studio. (bell softly chiming) Hi, I'm Andy, and welcome to Radio Headspace, and a Thursday morning. Thought today we talk a little bit about the interconnectedness of life. I don't know how much you think about that. The idea that none of us are truly separate, not just from the people around us, but from everything around us. I remember being in the monastery, and every morning we would have to go through a set of you could think of it as chanting or prayers or recollections, reflections, however you like to think about that stuff in your mind. But the beginning of it was always the same, and it was this is for the benefit of all sentient beings. To begin with, that has a really sort of big impact on the mind. It's like, wow, all sentient beings, they're not just all humans but everything in the world, all living beings. There's a real kind of sense of the mind expanding and us feeling more connected with the world. But then something interesting happens after a while. It almost becomes, I don't know, almost like rote, you're just sort of, you're saying it but maybe you're not really feeling it. So I remember going to my teacher and and explaining this, and he says, yeah, sure, that's common. You know, he said, the best thing to do in this situation is to think of somebody really close to you. Think of someone who you very easily can conjure up that feeling and think it's in their benefits. So when you do the practice, yes, it benefits the world but if that feels too big, just focus on that one person. At the start of so many practices and meditations, I will always say, I'll always ask you right to think about your intention, who you're doing this for, why you're doing it. Just to have a sense that it is about something more than ourselves. It's not just how it impacts us as individuals but it's how it impacts the people around us. But there may be days, and I hope there will be days where it goes a little bit further than just the people around you. I think we can do that at a very limited way. It might be a partner, and if that's the thing that conjures up that feeling, that's the most important thing. So don't lose that. But maybe sometimes we're able to take it a bit wider and it's kinda like, it's not just the people we live with. Maybe it's the people we work with. And then maybe it's not just the people we work with. Maybe it's the people in our social group. And then maybe it's the people that we pass on the street, in our car, when we're walking, holding a door open. You know, there are lots of different interactions in our life that we may not necessarily remember...