This Lesson Made Me Value Every Moment

(cursor clicks) (bright music) Headspace Studios. (light music) Hi, my name's Andy and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Monday morning. So a few days back, I was chatting to someone about meditation and mindfulness. A lot of my conversations seem to go that way. This person was saying that whilst they appreciated the philosophy of mindfulness, the approach of mindfulness, they felt that really like meditation was where it was at. And they were trying to persuade me. But yeah, but really kind of meditation's what it's all about, right? As we sort of got into the conversation, I was offering up, my understanding of it was every single moment is equally precious. Every single moment is equally relevant. Every single moment has its place. It doesn't matter whether that's during our meditation, whether it's at some other moment during the day. The point is to be present. And it's so easy to look at meditation as though that's the most important part of the day. If we're someone who trains in meditation, we might look at that time in the day and think that's the really important time. That's the time where we're cultivating awareness and compassion, and the rest of the day as well, just the rest of the day. But I really encourage you to reframe that outlook if that is the way that you look at it. Because I would say that meditation is no more important than walking down the street. It's no more important than eating our food. It's no more important than putting our head on the pillow at nighttime. 'Cause we can be sitting in meditation and thinking about other stuff. Equally, we can be doing all those other activities while thinking about stuff, but we can also be sat in meditation whilst being present, aware of each passing moment. In the same way, we can be walking down the street and yet still be present, still be aware of what's going on. So rather than thinking of them as two separate things, starting to think of every single moment being equally important. Meditation and life aren't separate. Meditation is just one thing that we do within our daily activity, and for sure, it's very helpful and it creates an environment where it's easier to be present, but that doesn't mean it's more important, that those moments are more important. When I think back to life in the monastery, the emphasis on this is so great that there are techniques and strategies, if you like, for every single part of the day. Whether it's climbing out of bed in the morning, whether it's shaving your head to do every sort of few days, even sitting on the toilet, there are techniques that encourage you to be more present when you're sitting on the toilet. Every single moment is considered another opportunity to cultivate awareness, to cultivate compassion, and to be more present, to be more engaged in life. So as you...