Download Otter for your meeting notes

Book Study Group [#30] | Otter.ai

Book Study Group [#30]

Night Club1h 13min

Unknown Speaker

00:01

Okay, let me get the transcript going.

Unknown Speaker

00:08

One second.

Andrew Holecek

00:11

Okay, Okay, here we go. Okey dokey. Oh, it's so fun.

Andrew Holecek

00:23

Hey, everybody, big group group, big group hug.

Andrew Holecek

00:30

Group. Hello. That's great. Yeah, so I'm Andrew hollow check. Some of you may know me, I, I just wanted to say a few introductory comments into welcome. welcome you all to welcome our honored guests here. You know, we started this book group thing. Back in September, we finished we have, what 30 weeks on the dreams of light book. And then the inspiration behind this particular book was we just need the big wave Hello, about a month ago, and I noticed a couple of wonderful young, smiling faces, children waving. And I thought, oh my god, there's kids listening to this, this is fantastic. And so it hit me almost immediately at that point that that I wanted to introduce you to this most amazing book. I really, I can't tell you how beautiful this is. It's one of these marvelous books. That is an adult book, really kind of encrypted as a children's book, there's so much wisdom in this. And so my dear, dear friend, Joseph parent, we sent a bio about who whose remarkable individual is agreed when I propose this idea to him. And to make it even better his wonderful sister, Nancy, who co authored this with him is also on board. So I'm super excited about this. So I simply wanted to welcome you all, to this particular aspect of the book club. And as with the first one, we're pretty free flowing, it's an emergent design. For five, six weeks, we don't know, you know, we'll see how it goes. We don't want to rush it. It's a it's a short book, but it's just rich with layers of subtlety and nuance and wealth, design for the beginner in each one of us, the child within each one of us, and also for children who actually will have the opportunity to listen to that. So without much ado, further ado, I should say welcome, everybody. Welcome, my dear friends, Joseph. And Nancy, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy lives to do this with us. I can speak on behalf of our community that we're super honored and psyched to have you with us. And so let's let's take it away, a walk in the woods, meditations on mindfulness with a bear named who, with Joseph and Nancy to

Speaker 1

03:02

thank you, Andrew. That was great. And it's nice to see lots of familiar faces from the book study group and the meditation classes that we've been doing. We are we are missing one person. And that is my wife, Megan, who was the designer. She works for Disney and she designed this beautiful, I wish she could feel the cover. It's embossed with lots of texture. And then you'll see a lot of the interiors that she designed with just a touch of read and and a beautiful layout chose all the fonts and and pages. So if you you've got your I see people holding copies, you'll, you'll see it she did the design. an illustrator from Disney did the drawings. And I wanted to introduce my dear sister who wrote books for Disney for 20 years right now and now as a freelance writer. And it was because of her connection with Disney, one of the editors that this book came about so why don't you share the story with everybody? Nancy,

Speaker 2

04:22

Okay, thank you. So I'm back in July 2017. NPR did a piece on Morning Edition on the show called forest fading, retreat to nature can boost immunity and mood. And this was following up a trend that was happening in Japan called forest bathing. And my old boss Patricia van node who's an editorial director for Disney publishing. I did a lot of work for her I worked with her and then I freelance for her I currently freelance for her and she would call me from time to time and bounce ideas off of me and we would bring strung together. Sometimes I'd write them sometimes not whatever. Anyway, she called me because I have a great idea for a book. And I said, Okay, what what do you what are you thinking? She said, I think Disney should do a book on force fading with Winnie the Pooh, because there he is walking around the 100 Acre Wood and doing a lot of forest bathing, or at least he should be. Anyway, I'd said, Now that sounds great. And she, the next step was for her to take it to her acquisitions meeting. And two weeks later, I get another call from Pat. And she goes, Well, the books been acquired. And we're doing it. And then she said, and I know exactly who should write this book. And I said, Okay, I guess who should write the book. And she said, You should write it. And you should write it with your brother, who I know is a meditation and mindfulness instructor. You too need to be the authors of this book. And we agreed to do it. And we're very excited about it. And then one week after that, I get another call from Pat. And she said, okay, we've selected the designer for the book. And it is your brother's wife, Megan, who is the senior designer for Disney publishing. And she's gonna design it. And so it became a total and complete family affair. And really, and truly a labor of love for all of us.

Speaker 1

06:26

So, my sister would say she was the project manager. And I was the maybe we could do a little of this, maybe we should change a little of that and say, chapter four lockdown. We got to lock this down. Because we had a very short deadline, what about two months, I think we had to do the whole thing. Then, we had to decide on the illustrations. We got a sample and and what I did in preparation, Nat, Nancy, oh, by the way, I was asked to show my tie is a classic Winnie the bow tie right here. Perfect. It's so classic, it says classic bow. So the what I did was I read all of the a million books, because we were not allowed to use any of the original books. In fact, when what I what I asked for, for the illustrations was make them as old fashioned as close to the original Ernest Shepard drawings as you can. And I'm going to show you show you some of those. Give you an example here, hang on a second. I'm going to do a little little screen share here. The End ci and, and she said, See, here's some of the books. Here's it. Here's one that really looks like that Winnie the Pooh, right? So there's the old style, old style drawings of Winnie the Pooh, that kind of thing. Well, as it as it turned out. She did the drugs and they were fabulous. We thought they were great. The Disney lawyer said they look too much like the original books, we don't have the rights to the original drawings. So she went back and did them again. And then they came and looked like the current cartoons. And I said, No, that's not Nancy. And I said, No, no, that does not fit with the book. And she went back for a third time and came up with what we have in the book now, which we love. And they're just wonderful drawings. And you'll be seeing those as we as we go. So so we did that. Nancy and I worked on the stories and and after each story is a section in that Megan designed to be in, in gray boxes like this, which is adult language instruction in different kinds of mindfulness meditations. So I wrote those, and then we work on the phones together. Sometimes she can't leave home. Sometimes I didn't. And Megan will tell you one night in the middle of the night, I woke up, turn the light on and said, I got the rabbit pump. I got it and had to write it all down. So it really came together that that way. Right man, and then anything you want to add to that.

Unknown Speaker

09:51

I know I think you've covered it.

Speaker 1

09:54

So the other thing I wanted to I did want to share with you Some things that we found when we went when we went through, one of the things that I found was that my teacher chigan trumper, and to Shay, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher, one of his favorite poems was in a Milan poem about to a kid who couldn't go outside. I guess it was his kid, Christopher Robin couldn't go outside, it was raining out. And he sat by the window wishing he would go out, and then saw to drop raindrops coming down the windowpane. And he created a race between he gave them each names and created a race between them. And he just that thought that was a wonderful poem. So we adapted that and you'll get to the story where poo and Andrew are watching leaves fall from the tree and they pick to in the rain, they're racing down so so we did a lot of adaptation. I did my best. As I read all the Milan stories to channel, that kind of state of mind. A millon wrote the originals in the 1920s as a way to teach, and he, they were stories that he told his son Christopher Robin. And they were the idea of publishing them was to cheer the country up. And people and they weren't just for kids, but you know, adults were reading them and and it was the after a terrible, terrible World War One, and cheered them up. So I wanted to share a little bit of history that Nan gave me this book that was written finding Winnie and it has some original drawings. Now, Winnie the Pooh came from a real bear named Winnie that was in the London Zoo, that Christopher that a melon took his son, Christopher Robin to visit. And it was a very chain bear, because it had been bought by a soldier from Winnipeg. at a train station on the guy had it on a leash on the way to go across to England and then to France to fight in World War One. And so we'll start with Hang on a second. Here we go. So the very first, this is his diary. from Harry, the soldier that bought the dog. And you it's it says it printed on the bottom. It's hard to read, but on the very bottom line of the 24th of August two bought bear $20 isn't that cute? So, so that's when he bought the bear. And I all I could think of was August 1914. The guns of August, it was the start of World War One. Then, this is when he inherited and he named the bear Winnie short for a name there Winnipeg. So when he is short for Winnipeg, because that's where he was from, and it was always so he would have a little bit of home was with him. And then a statue in 1992 was made of Harry and Winnie. And there's the picture that the statue is made from Oh, so cute. And then this is Christopher Robin with Winnie the grow as a grown up black bear. And this was in 1925 in the zoo and they became friends. So it's so it was so cool to see the history now. Then, the original animals so to all the Winnie the Pooh stories with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and friends all come from these original animals that were Christopher Robin stuffed animals. There's the teddy bear. There's chegar that's Piglet. Very tiny. So he was always scared because Tigger was gonna knock them over. There's Kanga and there's your so they, they now live in this display the 100 Acre Wood there in the New York Public Library.

Speaker 1

14:37

And this is our version. These are the latest Disney stuffed animals that we collected for when Nancy and I did our readings. There's Winnie there's there's room cangas little little boy, Piglet, Tigger, and you're Of course So that was our reading. And now a, there's a book of poems called when we were young. And in it, we find your original teddy bear that became Winnie the Pooh. And there's the original teddy bear. A bear however hard he tries grows chubby without exercise. And if we have time, at the end of the session, I'll read the poem. But you can see how they're how all these drawings Winnie the Pooh, develop. Nan, do you remember where the poop part came from?

Speaker 2

15:43

There was a story about the expression used that when Christopher Robin would get frustrated, he would say, oh, poo poo. Yeah. And that's, and that's where it came from.

Speaker 1

15:55

That's what I that's what I remembered. So, so he'd be talking to his teddy bear. And he would be talking to his Teddy Bear, and he go, oh, and then that became the teddy bears second nickname. So that was Winnie the Pooh. of There's our history lesson for today. So I thought, let's just get into it. And what we'll do is do some reading. Nancy and I are going to take turns the narrator and and voicing the animals. And the first few chapters is just one of the two alone but I want her to to read in this introduction. And this gives a little bit of the background. as Andrew does, I might stop and make a verbal footnote here and there. But here we go. Walking the word, meditations on mindfulness with a burning interest introduction. Winnie the Pooh and his friends live in an enchanted world of natural beauty. The 100 acre woods, who is the perfect guide to take you on a gentle a gently mindful journey. A simple walk in the woods can open the door to a life changing experience a discovery of profound peace of mind through the deeply gratifying richness of sense perceptions. Mindfulness is a state of followers, moment by moment, present to all one's experiences without judgment or bias. Such awareness encompasses external perceptions, as well as internal feelings, emotions, and thoughts. And as as you know, when we've done our meditation classes, we do the close placement, mindfulness of internal sensation and the breathing. But then we do open awareness and environmental mindfulness. And that's really what we connect with so much, both of those in his book. practicing mindfulness begins with setting the intention to be more fully in the here and now. After settling into your physical presence, you focus on a sense experience, like the feeling of your breath going in and out. The main work of the practice is bringing your attention back to its focus. As soon as you recognize that you've drifted off from thoughts. The goals are to be able to pay attention more completely to what you're doing to maintain that for longer periods of time. to notice more quickly when your mind wanders and to bring yourself back again and again. The benefits of mindfulness are well recognized peace of mind, calmness and stress reduction, the opportunity to work through and transform painful thoughts, memories and worries, as well as acceptance of the changes and challenges that life brings. And don't we have enough of those. There's also a growing acknowledgement of the benefits of deeply experiencing nature. The calming quality of sounds like running water and rustling leaves, the soothing quality of smells like lavender and camel meal, and the emotional comfort of beautiful natural VISTAs are well documented. Access to the healing qualities of mindfulness in nature is very timely for our stressful fast paced modern world. One response to this has been the emergence of a program that began in Japan in the early 1990s. It is called shinrin. Yoku, which roughly translates as far as I always thought that was not such a good translation people pictured a pond in the middle of the forest and you go take a bath in there but but the literal translation would be immersing yourself in the atmosphere of the forest. So it is mindfulness as well as a Roma therapy going into the pine and Eucalyptus forests. It as I wrote it, as Nancy and I wrote, but it doesn't involve dipping yourself in water. Rather, you immerse yourself in sense awareness of the natural environment sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations, like a warm, soothing bath, you experience the healing qualities of each communing with nature, and mindfulness of sense perceptions is the ideal vehicle to truly immerse yourself in that experience. When the mind is absorbed in mindfulness and bathed in the sense perceptions of nature, you are less focused on your physical and emotional pain, anxiety and stress. Feeling better creates a positive momentum toward true well being.

Speaker 1

20:25

The stories in this book follow through through the course of one day begins with waking up. When a session morning exercises mindfulness practice, and contemplations unkindness, he takes a walk in the woods, delighting in the magic of natural beauty with a childlike spontaneity. He has adventures and friends he meets along the way, encouraging them to be confident, considerate, fearless, cheerful and relaxed. Who's next experiences inspire deep insights into life, as well as the appreciation he feels for his friends and nature. Upon returning home, he reflects on the day and sets his aspirations for the future. Along with each story is a description of the perspectives and practices that you can use to learn about mindfulness. deepen your experience of it, and guide you in immersing yourself in the magic of nature. As Peru discovered mindfully exploring nature and engaging with friends, is an ideal path for working with your own habits, attitudes and emotions, while cultivating more meaningful relationships with others. Chapter One, chapter one mindful unkind. How you start your morning set the tone and rhythm for the rest of the day. So it's helpful to develop a regular physical and mental routine. Wake up your body with some simple movements. Wake up your sense perceptions by tuning into your environment. Wake up your mind, by setting your intentions for the day, to be as mindful and kind as you can be for yourself and others.

Speaker 2

22:15

It was morning, the way most days begin, Winnie the Pooh woke up, which is how we'd like to start each morning, he stretched out his arms and legs, a side that was mostly a yawn, or was it a yarn that was mostly OSI started deep inside, wound its way up through his nose and found its way out his mouth within Ah, and then, um, he sat up stretched a little more, and rub the sleep from his eyes, who gave himself a little shake all over, in case any of him hadn't woken up yet. Then set up again nice and straight. He took in a big breath of fresh air, held it for a moment and blew it all the way out. Who did so three times every morning to clear the stare stale air from his body, and the sticky cobwebs from his mind. Next, go open his eyes very wide to take in all that he could see colors, shapes and different shades of light and dark. There were beams of yellow sunlight dancing on the wall, his brown chair in the corner, and a picture of a very pink Piglet on the table, who opened his ears to take in all the sounds he could hear, near and far, loud and soft, high and low. There was the tick tock tick of his poop cuckoo clock on the wall.

Speaker 2

23:47

The birds chirping sounds outside his window, and the gentle whistling of the wind and the trees. Next, he recited his morning, Ron

Unknown Speaker

23:57

just two things to do to truly be who

Speaker 2

24:03

the first thing was to be in the here and now as much as he possibly could, without a whole lot of thinking about it. This was easy enough for a bear of very little brain. The second thing was to be as kind as he possibly could toward everyone, including himself. This was easy enough for a bear a very big heart.

Speaker 1

24:25

It's not hard to be me. Just be here now and be current.

Speaker 1

24:36

So that's our first story. Waking up. Now I want to read the additional materials. The instructions for practice and the idea here is for us to do this as adults and then if you have children in your Then to be able to share this with them or whatever age is appropriate. So that's why we wrote it this way. This is from pieces every step by tick, not Han. Every morning when we wake up, we have 24 brand new hours to live. What a precious gift. We have the capacity to live in a way that these 24 hours will bring peace, joy and happiness to ourselves and others. Wake up your body. To start your morning routine, sit upright in bed, from the edge of the of the bed with your feet on the floor. Take a full breath in through your nose, hold it for a moment, then exhale through both the nose and mouth until your breath is all the way up. You can gently pull in your belly to help push your breath all the way up. Do that three times, if you'd like. Imagine that with each exhalation you're releasing a negative feeling or emotion, such as anger, greed, envy, pride or stubbornness. Now some of you will recognize this, I have two I've taken the more advanced class as the cleansing breaths, the clearing grids. Since we since we wrote this, there's actually this book came out called breath by James Nester. And one of the things he points out is that, that one of the issues that we have with breathing is not so much that we don't take enough pressure in, but we don't exhale x expel enough of the stale air, there's always some residual left in our lungs. So when we breathe out this this exhalation, if we can just push it out, and just further, further further, almost choke. You don't want to cause pain, you have to find your edge, but almost till it's like oh, then slowly take a full breath in, you'll be amazed at how much more of breath you can take in when you clear all that air. So that's very, very helpful to do. The reason that I put this in as wake up and swing your feet over over the edge of the bed for beginners. And, and even even for me, after you get up and you start doing stuff, it's hard to stop and go sit down and do your, your breathing and your your meditation. So before I get out of bed, swing the feet over to the side and do your morning practice that way, you can be a little more sure that you can get it done and not get caught up in the swirl of things that are going on. So that's wake up to your body's wake up to your environment. Open your eyes wide to your full field of vision, side to side and up and down. So you soften your face muscles, soften your gaze open up to your full field division. Notice all the colors, shapes and shades of light and dark you can see without judgment, preference, or commentary. One of the things we discover when we work with our set perceptions. If you if you work with vision, the only things you can actually see are colors, shapes, and shades of light and dark. You know, somebody can hold something in front of you, you know, and it looks heavy. But you see, can you see how heavy This is, you can't see how heavy something is. You can't see how warm or cold something is. You can only see colors, shapes, and shades of light and dark visual perceptions. In the same way tune in to your hearing, opening your awareness to sounds from all directions near and far. Notice all the louder soft, higher low and sharp or dull sound you may hear. experience what you're feeling, such as the permanence of the mattress, you're sitting on the soft carpet, or hardwood of the floor under your feet, the texture of the sheet or blanket under your hands.

Speaker 1

29:24

So these are the stages in the sense perception, awareness of the environment and sense perceptions. We've done this in the meditation class going through all the sense perceptions. And what we've talked about is that our set perceptions are proceeding mind is like a monkey in a room with six windows. It jumps from window to window but it can only look at one window at a time. So that sense perception is in the foreground and all the others go to the background. So listening seeing smelling, tasting, feeling. One thing Nancy and I also wrote a Diet book. And one thing that we put in there was to set your fork and knife down after you've taken a bite of food, because if you're working with them, your mind is on the feeling and not on the tasting. It is amazing how much more you taste when you don't do anything else. But taste. Thoughts are also included in this in the sense that you perceive your thoughts. So the thought popped up in your mind, if you can observe it without getting taken away by it. It's like your mental sense perception. And the third part is, set your intentions for the day. First, establish the intention to be as mindful of your body as you can to notice how you move, how you feel, and what you experienced through your senses. And to be kind in your actions. Second, establish the intention be as mindful of your speech as you can to notice the words you use, and the tone and volume with which you express them in to maintain positive self talk, and helpful communication with others. intend to refrain from complaints about or put downs of others and yourself, and to be kind in your speech. Third, establish the intention to be as mindful of your thoughts and state of mind as you can to notice your experiences as it unfolds without analysis or commentary. And to come back to what's happening in here, and now, when you wander into daydreams of past and future, intend to be kind and your thoughts and attitudes overall, as best you can be aware of how much you are keeping to or straying from these three intentions throughout the day, the more mindful and kind are, the better your day will be. So that's the end of the first chapter. And I thought we could just take a moment, if people have any questions, you can put them in the chat. Or if you'd like, you can raise your hand. And Andy will unmute you and and then anything about the book or that first chapter, and the practice that we just talked about?

Speaker 1

32:37

This is what I call waiting meditation. Wait, let things percolate. Well, maybe people are eager to hear more about from the book. So I guess we should continue. So anytime you want. While we're going, you can put a question in the chat box. Oh, we got one before we started. What has your experience been with children? I personally don't have them. But I coach golfers and work a lot with young, young golfers sometimes as young as seven or eight years old. And then I have lots of friends with children and I have nieces and nephews. And Nancy, one of those is Nancy son, Howard. To Nan Why don't you talk about your experience with children as a children's book, right?

Speaker 2

33:56

Well, since I worked for Disney for 2021 years, that has been my exposure to to children and what the kinds of things that children love, especially in the Disney universe. And my own son, who is now 28 years old, but was it was a very young child once upon a time. Anyway, he he and actually he and my nieces and nephews have always inspired me. I have picked up pictures of them. I have a wonderful picture of them dressed as superheroes that I used to bring to brainstorming sessions with me.

Speaker 1

34:42

So great, thank you. And Virginia's would you say this morning practicing Buddhist practice, or more a mindfulness practice. This is well you see, I don't know if you know about Venn diagrams, but there you know, there were these overlapping Well, um, mindfulness really originated the mindfulness practice, as most of us know, it really originated in the, in the Buddhist tradition 2500 years ago. And I think Andrew is talking about mindfulness itself of presence and being present, probably predates that. But it was codified in the Buddhist tradition in the for what are called the four foundations of mindfulness. So that's the first mention of it, in that in that context, as, as a particular practice, but this mindfulness practice that's introduced in here is free of any particular cultural, or, or religious connotations in any way. This is basically mindfulness practice that you do have for your body, your environment, and then setting intentions. I'm sure that I learned them through my 50 years in the Buddhist tradition, but I wouldn't call them specifically Buddhist practices. So I hope that's helpful. Now we have chapter two, cold just doing so gotta get our get, and I will get the picture up and enter into your morning household activities slowly and mindfully. Being aware of how you move and what you're seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling and tasting. Notice as much as you can, with as little judgment preference or commentary as possible. Recognize when your thoughts take you away into daydreams of past or future. And without judging or criticizing yourself, simply return to what you would do. Give you a picture here, who climbed out of bed, which always helped him get his day going. He practiced being in the here and now every morning, by tidying up as mindfully as he could, without thinking about anything else. When he made the bed, he just made the bed. When he got dressed, he just got dressed. When he opened the curtains, he just opened them. All of a sudden, some leaves washed into the window, who took out a broom and started to sweep. Now let's give you a look of poo sweeping here. There he is. Although his sweeping began mindfully, his thoughts drifted back to the time that he and Piglet had jumped into the crunchy autumn leaves in rabbits garden. The leaves had flown everywhere, rabbit got a bit cross. So Pooh and Piglet swept the leaves back into a pile. At that moment, who woke up from his Daydream, he noticed that he had been sweeping the same spot over and over again.

Speaker 2

38:21

Oh, dear. My mind was in the past and rabbits garden, while my sweeping was here and now. But it's okay. No need to fret. Now my mind is back to here.

Speaker 1

38:33

You see, any time he noticed he had strayed from being in the present. He simply recited is reminding writing,

Speaker 2

38:41

coming back from the future or past to what I was just doing last. That's the way I know how to be poor here and now.

Speaker 1

38:52

And he went back to sweeping hearing a little rumble from his tummy, who thought that a smack roll of something would quiet things down. He dipped his toe in some sweet golden honey and licked it all off. Oh, I'm so yummy. When Kool Aid honey, he did not have to remind himself to just eat. Then poo was finished. He looked around and smiled. Everything was tidy and his rumbling tummy was quiet. He felt satisfied knowing that he had done his best job of being here and now and being kind to himself with a cheery little home who opened the door and stepped outside. So that's story number two. I have a funny little anecdote with this. When we first wrote word the wrote the poem

Unknown Speaker

39:47

we wrote, come back to what I was just doing. And that's the way I know how to truly be Poland.

Speaker 1

40:00

And our, our, our editor pointed out near maybe we didn't want to say, Wait quite that way. And and this is how you get caught up. Right man, this is how you written it and we didn't see it. Now I mentioned this. I mentioned this to Andrew earlier, Nancy is also famous, having authored one of the 25, one of the top 25. In children's books, one of the top 25 worst titles, a children's book, and then what is what's the title of it? It was

Speaker 2

40:43

cooking with poop. It was Yeah, no. Just joking with poop? Yes. Oh, yes,

Speaker 1

40:56

yes. And so we decided to rewrite the pill from that. So as to what I was just doing, I know how to truly be pooing we, we change that to be cool here. And now. So I thought you Yes, there is. That's the side we have. So this is an end when we wrote this poem. I said, wow, you know, this is the quintessence of mindfulness in four lines, what is the practice of mindfulness, come back from the future or past to what I was just doing less the word from mindfulness in the ancient Indian language from 2500 years ago. The The, the word for mindfulness is Sati. Sh. Well, it's not sh ti, that's the English spelling of it. It's pronounced Sati. And if you were to translate in a full key translation, it would be remembering what you were doing. We all have a very vivid experience of an absence of mindfulness. You were headed into the kitchen to do something or get something you got distracted and involved with something on the way you finished that you you did remember to go back towards the kitchen, and then you walk in you go, Okay, why did I come in here? You didn't remember what you were doing. So this is simply the instruction, the simplest instruction on the practice of mindfulness come back from the future or past, to what I was just doing last. When your mind wanders, come back to what you were just doing less, as I've talked about before, you don't have to come back to the present. Because as soon as you wake up from your Daydream, or the future or past, right, as soon as poor woke from his Daydream, he noticed, he'd been sweeping the same spot over and over again, he, he was already back in the present. You your present is your default mode. The Daydream is an overlay, and once it's gone, you're back. You're already here. What you come back to is what you were just doing less. That's the instruction. And that's the way to be to here and now. So we we talked about we read the coup, when he just when he made the bed, he just made the bed when he got dressed, he just got dressed. This is n story that connects with that, that I put in the next bit of material. twos and students were telling each other about their teachers. My teacher is a great master who does great things. With three strokes of his sword, he can cut an apple off a tree, slice it into and slice it into quarters before it hits the ground. He can shoot an arrow into the center of a target, and then split that arrow with the second one. The other student said that's pretty good. But my teachers really amazing that and a really amazing master who does really amazing things. What can he do as the first when my teacher walks, he just walks. When he sits, he just sits when he eats, he just eats mindfulness in action. practice mindfulness in action by moving slowly enough to notice details of your experience, movements, perceptions, and sensations. It's often helpful for beginners to mentally label what's being experienced. For example, Whoa. When drink a glass of water you can think grasping the glass. It feels cool and smooth, lifting it to my mouth. Drinking water. It feels quenching, setting the glass down, letting it go.

Speaker 1

45:16

When you wash your face, notice how you move your hands. Feel the wetness and warmth of the water. The smell and slipperiness of the soap, the softness of the towel. As you brush your teeth, notice the movement of your hand and wrist. Feel the rub of the bristles on your gums, taste the flavor, and smell the scent of the toothpaste. When you get dressed, notice how you move your arms and legs, the feel of the cloth against your skin, the colors of what you're wearing. As you tidy up the bedroom. Notice the weight and texture of the bedding as you lift and place it how you reach to hang up clothes from the night before the feel and sound when you pull the curtains open the sights you see outside your window. When you make and eat your breakfast, notice how you move through the kitchen, the smells and flavors of the food, how you hold your utensils, how you chew and swallow. And as I talked about one thing at a time, set your with B after each bite, set your utensils down, lean back. Enjoy the flavor. As you clean the kitchen, feel the water and sponge, smell the soap. Listen to the sounds of plates and flatware clattering notice how you open and close the refrigerator and cabinet doors. All these are mindfulness in action. Carrying on through the day. When you're done with your morning preparations. establish your intention to continue mindfulness in action as much as you can throughout the day. Picture situations in which you might find yourself getting distracted. So you can be especially mindful of your actions. Set aside times in your daily schedule for short breaks, to take a few breaths and establish yourself in the here and now. make a commitment to calmness before engaging with others. Then carry on this, taking short breaks and taking a few breaths reminds me of a story that that Nancy told me after I taught her about breathing. Do you remember the story about the guy who was spinning when he came into your office? Man? You told me the story that I remember who she does, she did it. I taught her to to take some do some breathing when things get out of control. And this guy came into the office, and he said, okay, for meetings and Okay, we got to do this, we got to do that. And then we get into this. And then we got to do that. And and he was spinning in and Nancy said, Oh, and then she started spinning. And okay, well when we do this, we have to do that. And then she she did a timeout said oh time time. I need to breathe. And she just stopped and started breathing. And she didn't tell him to but by the third breath, he was breathing along with her. And then she said, Okay, let's make an agenda and had a very productive meeting. So it's something that I've talked about. I call it Stop, drop and roll. You know, when when you're clear, you're taught when your kids when you close catch on fire, to stop, drop and roll on the ground. But when your mind is on fire, stop what you're doing. Drop the conversation and the mental conversation. And breathe, stop, drop and breathe. You can take a couple of breaths. You don't have to answer a text. As soon as it comes in. You get a kick all the best you want. Even your phone you can least take one before you pick up the phone. So we have a couple of questions. I might have missed this in your intro. But what was your inspiration for connecting Winnie the Pooh to mindfulness? That was what we talked about of the shinrin Yoku or forest bathing. Nancy was explaining that her editor had right Nan would you want to say that again? You're

Speaker 2

49:38

sure she listened to a piece that was done on NPR on the show Morning Edition. They did a piece called forest bathing a retreat to nature can boost immunity and mood. And when she listened to the piece. She thought about the Disney universe of characters and said we have the perfect character to do a book on forest Anything and it's Winnie the Pooh in 100 acre word,

Speaker 1

50:02

right? Because there's there's a bear live in the woods. Right? That's fair, and do everything else in the woods. But but the and and then what you told me man was, she had understood from the piece that it's both aroma therapy and the atmosphere. But it's also a deep experience of mindfulness of nature. Yes. And then she asked, my sister said, Your brother teaches mindfulness, right? Would he be interested in working with you on the book? And that's how the connection happened with Winnie the Winnie the Pooh and mindfulness. The next question is an age range as far as kids that we'd recommend, I think we said four to 104. And the wonderful thing about this is, who doesn't like Winnie the Pooh? They did a survey of all the children's book characters in history, Winnie the Pooh, number one, the most beloved of all, so, wow. Now, could if you showed these pictures and read these stories to a four year old? Sure, I think so. They probably wouldn't be able to do the meditation. That's probably more for seven or eight year olds, but even even in a lot of preschools, they are having the kids just sit quietly. And you can say, notice what you're feeling? What do you feel that you can give them something to touch and say, you know, can't feel this? Is it softer? rough, you know, Is it heavy or light, as long as they understand those terms, you can just do that. So you have to you find your way. The stories were are for all ages, the instructional parts, you have to decide for yourself, for the kids that you're working with. Traditionally, real meditation, where you actually sit down and work with awareness of the breathing and posture, and, and labeling and bringing back traditionally, and I was told by my teacher in Tibet, they didn't really started the kids till they were eight years old. But they would start doing mindfulness in action. When they were five kids in Tibet, were not disciplined in any way until they were five. And then at that point, they said, You are now a part of the family, you have jobs, you have responsibilities, and there's this transition. And then they were start starting to be taught to be mindful.

Speaker 2

52:52

But even with social emotional learning with preschoolers, they're finding that it's great and good to have a child take a pause and take a breath before acting out in any way. So they're working a lot with breathing with preschoolers

Speaker 1

53:11

for emotional regulation. Yeah, absolutely. That is, er, emotional regulation is kind of a latest thing. Yeah. Thank you. That's great. The next one is how does mindfulness play out in something that is directed toward the future, like planning of an event, a project or a trip? Oh, okay. So that's very good. If you know that that's what you're doing. Then you're making your plans with awareness with present awareness. I know that I am. I know that I'm looking at my calendar, I know that I am looking at may 28. Oh, I remember may 28. I'm gonna be traveling, I should look into getting a plane ticket. Okay, and I'm going to write down getting a plane ticket. You know, when I go on this trip, you know, it's gonna be so great. And I think that I'm gonna end and then you're off in a fantasy. And when you're off in the fantasy, your mind is in the future. That that and if you're, if you're sitting and meditating, you're sitting and meditating, you're not writing things down and planning in the future. The thought may come Oh, I'm, when I get up. I think I need to get an airplane. And then you let it go. That's not so easy. Sometimes. I get to remember I gotta remember. And, but if you're sitting there you go. Okay. Yep, I know. Oh, I'll get my airplane ticket, no problem. And then you start thinking about the trip and you're not with your breath and your and your posture. That's the moment when when you wake up from that visit to the future, that's when you go up. That was thinking or wandering back to what I was intending to pay attention to see, it's all about your intention, your intention for your attention. So mindfulness basically means aware, as you wrote, very good, aware of what you're doing and what's going on in your mind while you're doing. That's correct. Let's see if we have any more. This is shared in the chat A good rule, a child can sit still one minute per aid per years of age. Three minutes for a three year old, and so on. Who I should be able to sit for a long time. That's

Speaker 1

56:05

okay, how are we doing? So that's been about an hour. Should we do one more chapter? What do you think?

Unknown Speaker

56:14

Do I see thumbs up or? Alright, one more chapter, we're gonna do one more chapter.

Speaker 1

56:22

And this is, oh, this is perfect. This is body and mind. A combination of energetic movement and mindfulness practice helps to cultivate well being by synchronizing body and mind, activate the flow of energy throughout your body, settle your mind and rest your attention on your breathing.

Speaker 2

56:47

As he stepped outside, who felt the soft, moist moss under his feet, he smelled the rich sweetness of the honeysuckle, his favorite flower of course, on the climbing vines curling around the tree, licking his lips, he left up a mist drop of luscious honey. He heard the birds singing and the wind whistling, or the birds whistling in the wind singing who noticed that he could see the forest for the trees no matter what anyone says. Here were the trees, bushes, hills, Dales, creeks and ponds that made up the 100 acre woods. Now it was time for his daily exercises, who raised his chubby little arms high up in the air, but at least as high as they would go. He could feel the pole along his arms and shoulders and sides. Then he bent over to touch his toes, or at least as far as he could reach down to them, he could feel the stretch in the back of his legs. He did each movement exactly seven times, not six, since that wouldn't be enough, nor eight, since he could only count to seven. Then he walked slowly and mindfully to the big log in front of his house, his not thinking spot, who settled his bottom onto the log at a smooth, curvy place that fit just right. He sat up straight so he could take nice full breaths, who drew the air into his nose, it was cool and dry and it filled him up. Upon breathing out. It felt warm, moist, the rhythm of his breath, filling and then emptying, load him into a comfortable calm, who could feel his tummy get bigger and smaller as he breathed in and out. He let his mind rest they're feeling the weight of his body, as if he were sinking into the law. Deeply grounded and firmly centered in his not thinking spot who felt at peace.

Unknown Speaker

58:57

Who brought to mind one of his favorite sayings?

Speaker 2

59:01

The past is history. The future is a mystery. Being here and now is a precious gift. That's why they call it the present.

Speaker 1

59:11

This helped him to stay in the here and now more of the time. And it helps you to notice more quickly when he wandered into the past or future. So he could come back to the present. Now who was ready to start his practice of counting breaths to help them be better at paying attention and alerting him to when he was not. He counted in and out one in and out two, in and out three, and so on. Since pool couldn't count past seven whenever he got there. Besides being quite proud that he did. He simply started over again. Every now and then he get whisked away into a parade of thoughts. When he realized he'd been daydreaming he didn't get upset. He just noticed he had wandered into the pasture future. And matter of factly thought,

Unknown Speaker

01:00:02

father got a bit muddled there,

Speaker 1

01:00:05

and returned to awareness of his breathing in the here. And now. After appreciating his environment, doing exercises, and practicing mindfulness of breathing, who knew that his body and mind was ready as they could be for whatever adventures the day might bring. So we we talked about counting the breaths. And there were a variety of techniques for that. But I will use the word parade he got whisked away into a parade of thoughts. And this is a metaphor that someone friend of mine shared with me. He said, mindfulness includes watching the parade, the parade of thoughts. When you find yourself in the parade, that's when you know that your mind has wandered. And you come back to the sidelines and watch again. So now we go to the instructional parts. This is from Jon Kabat Zinn wherever you go, there you are. Stop, sit down and become aware of your breathing. Let go into full acceptance of the present moment. Don't try to change anything at all. Just breathe and let go. In your mind and in your heart. Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is, and allow yourself to be exactly as you are. Plan a set amount of time for each part of your session. Start with shorter periods, and make them longer as you become more accustomed to the practices. It's helpful to set a timer so you don't need to look at a clock to check to check the time. And Andrew and and I have talked a lot about short sessions even if you do a longer session of practice, don't try to grind it out. Do it for a little while, and then shake it off and take a fresh start. Energetic movement. To start your practice session. It's good to do some stretching and movement not too extreme, like gentle yoga, tai chi or other similar disciplines. Move you can softly move in ways that activate the flow from your core throughout your body. Make gentle circles with your hips, shoulders, and arms. Then do the same with each leg, knee and foot. Please be careful. You want to feel the stretch, but be sure to know your edge the point where you need to pull back a bit. Don't hurt yourself. while engaging in your body work. Do your best to maintain mindfulness and how you're moving, the sensations you're feeling as well as you're breathing. From mindfulness of body, sit upright, but not rigid. gently close your eyes and let any tension other than what you need to hold your posture flow down and out of your body. And you can do this a little bit while I'm reading these if you'd like. Let your awareness drop gently into the deep corner of your torso like a leaf settling slowly down to the bottom of a clear pond. Feel how your breathing slows and deepens. As each breath goes out. Imagine that you feel more and more like you're emerging with the earth. That's as grounded as you can be. gently open your eyes looking slightly downward without tilting your head forward. Focus your attention on your posture and the sensations of your breathing. feel that your torso is filling with air as you breathe in and then emptying as you breathe out. When you realize that your mind has drifted into a series of thoughts like a daydream, just acknowledge it and return your attention to your posture and breathing. without judging or criticizing yourself for becoming distracted. To help you maintain focus, you can also count your breaths. A traditional practice is to mentally count at the end of each out breath in and out one in and out two in and out three and so on. As good Did you can count to seven and then begin again at one. As you progress in your practice, try counting to a higher number. to sharpen your attention further, you can count backwards. Another version of the counting practice includes labeling. This is this is total life by tick not Han. With each breath you think in one out here, in two out now, in three out here in four out now and so on. Again for any of these methods if you drift into a daydream lose track of your account, just start over.

Speaker 1

01:04:54

conclude each session of mindfulness practice with an aspiration in your own words. It's a firm that you will be as mindful as possible throughout the rest of the day or evening. You can also Aspire that your practice will benefit both yourself and others, which leads you to the kindness practice presented in the next chapter. And that's the chapter that we'll do next week. Let's see if we have any other questions. And I have I do want to read that poem at the end of our session, because I love doing it so much. This book sounds very good and positive so far, do you have an age which I think we did that the age range? recommending it? Let's see. No, I think we don't have any more questions. Let's wait for a moment in case someone has another one. We'll do our waiting meditation. You can count like good dude if you want. I'm hearing the sounds that I have playing on my TV. It's a YouTube of Tibetan singing bowls, different gongs. It's very beautiful and soothing. Well, I am going to read the poem now. So the fun thing with this is we're going to go through the poem right out of the book and see all the illustrations. So I'm going to share the screen and you can read along with me here.

Speaker 1

01:06:52

Is that up as a shared screen? Okay. Teddy Bear, a bear however, Hardy tries crows Tubby without exercise, Howard Teddy, very short and fat, which is not to be wondered that he gets what exercise he can by falling off the Ottoman, but generally seems to lack the energy to clamber back. Now to Venus is just the thing which gets a fellow wondering, and Teddy worried lots about the fact that he was rather stuck. He thought, If only I were thin, but how does one begin? He thought it isn't really it really isn't fair to grudge me exercise and air. For many weeks, he pressed in vain his nose against the window pain and envy those who walked about reducing their unwanted stout. None of the people he could see is quite, he said, as fat as me. Then with a still more moving sigh. I mean, he said, as far as I know Teddy as Rizzoli, right slept in the Ottoman at night, and with him crowded in as well, more animals than I can tell. Not only these but books and things, such as a kind relation brings old tales of once upon a time and history retold in Rome. One night it happened that he took a peek at an old picture book, where any came across by chance, the picture of a king of France, a stylish man, and down below these words King Louis so and so. Nicknamed the handsome there he said, and think of it some man was fat. Our bear rejoice like anything to read about this famous King, nicknamed the handsome, very set, and certainly thumb man was fat. Nicknamed the handsome, not a doubt, the man was definitely stout. Why, then a bear for all his tub might yet be named. The handsome curb might yet be named, or did he mean that years ago he might have been for now he felt a slight misgiving is Louis so and so still living? fashions in beauty have a way of altering from day to day is handsome Louis with us yet? Unfortunately, I forget. Next morning knows to Window pain the doubt occurred to him again. One question hammered in his head. Is he alive or is he dead? Thus nose to pain he pondered but the lattice window loosely shot swung open with one startled Oh, our teddy bear. Our Teddy disappeared below. there happened to be passing by. A plump man with a twinkling eye, who seen Teddy in the street, raised him politely to his feet, and murmured kindly in his ear soft words of comfort and of cheer. Well, well, allow me, not at all. Tuck tuck, a very nasty fall. Our Teddy answered, not a word. it's doubtful if he even heard, our bear could only look and look, the stout man in the picture book, that handsome King Could this be He, this man of adiposity? Impossible, he thought, but still no harm in asking. Yes, I will. Are you He said, By any chance, His Majesty the King of France? The other answered, I am that Bowden stiffly and removed his hat, then said excuse me within air, but is it Mr. Edward bear? And Teddy bending very low, replied politely, even so. They stood beneath the window there, the king and Mr. Edward bear, and handsome if a trifle fat, talk carelessly of this and that. Then His Majesty then said his majesty, well, well, I must get on and rang the bell, your bear, I think he smiled Good day, and turned and went upon his way.

Speaker 1

01:11:34

A bear, however hard he tries, grows Tubby with that exercise. Our teddy bear is short and fat, which is not to be wondered that, but do you think it worries him to know that he is far from slim? No, just the other way about. He's proud of being short and stepped.

Speaker 1

01:12:03

So thank you so much for joining us in this class. We are thrilled to have you and thrilled to be able to share what we've done. Man.

Unknown Speaker

01:12:19

Thank you, everyone. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker 1

01:12:22

See, she even rhymes with what I've done. Thank you. We can help. And thank you, Andrew, for hosting us. Next week, same bat time, same bat channel.

Andrew Holecek

01:12:44

Thank you, Joseph. Thank you, Nancy. Wonderful, wonderful.

Unknown Speaker

01:12:47

All right.

Speaker 1

01:12:50

We'll stay on and if you want to say anything in the chat before you go, we'll stay in and watch and watch it with you.

00:0000:00