Mindful Tech

Hi, and welcome to the Headspace Mindful Technology Exercise. So with so much technology around us, it's really easy to forget that ultimately, we get to define the relationship we have with our technology. For most of us, we've developed some quite bad habits, and one of those habits is to react to every single little thing, every sound, every vibration that comes from our phone or our computer. So this exercise is about learning how to be more responsive, a little less reactive. So we're gonna use an exercise called noting where it allows you to see when the mind is sort of darting off, and rather than simply following it and going with it, we take a moment to realize, oh yeah, actually there's a choice in this moment. We can either let it go or we can choose to engage with it. And by practicing this on a regular basis, it'll help you to have a slightly better, healthier relationship with the technology around you. So just take a moment, make sure you're sitting comfortably. We're gonna start with the eyes open, just aware of the space around you, and when you're ready, just taking a few big, deep, breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. So as you breathe in, just noticing how the body expands as the lungs fill with air, and as the body exhales, how the muscles soften. Just one more time breathing in through the nose, and as you breathe out through the mouth this time, just gently closing the eyes, and allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm, and just feeling the weight of the body pressing down into the seat beneath you, and just noticing the contact of the feet on the floor, the hands, the arms, and the legs. And just settling in to the space around you, just enjoying not having to react or respond to any technology of any kind, just enjoying that feeling of having paused and stopped for a moment. And as you sit there, just starting to notice how the body feels right now, so where there's a sense of heaviness in the body, tiredness perhaps, or of lightness, where there's a sense of movement or stillness in the body. And then starting at the top of the head, just gently scanning down through the body, so starting to notice how the different parts of the body feel, just building up a picture of how the body feels right now. If at any stage the mind wanders off, just noticing when it's wandered, and just coming back to that feeling as you scan down towards the toes. And as you're scanning, just starting to notice the movement of breath in the body, so without breathing in any special way, just noticing that rising and falling sensation. It doesn't matter where you feel it. In fact, if you can't feel it at all, just gently placing your hand on...