Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening.
Anxiety.
Talking to one of our nephews the other day,
And he just said,
It's everywhere.
It's everywhere.
And I think there's some truth in it and I think it's so prevalent.
So prevalent.
And see what mind does.
It tells stories,
We know that,
We know how.
It's a storyteller.
One of our friends on retreat called it the,
Like an algorithm.
It just keeps creating these stories.
And that is the.
One of two causes of the anxiety.
We spend our time listening to the stories.
To projections into the future.
Just pause there,
A projection into the future.
It's imagined.
But the feeling is real.
The stories imagined put the feeling of anxiety There's a reality to it.
Because the body is reacting to the thoughts.
It doesn't know the thoughts are imagined,
Like imaginary.
We even get anxious about things that might have happened in the past.
Might have happened in the past,
Pause again.
Pause.
I'm laughing but it's not funny when you're in it.
In this algorithm,
Or the story.
In neuroscience called the default mode network.
It's just automatic.
It just keeps spinning self-referential thoughts.
That's what it does.
That's all it knows what to do.
And its default is on.
It's just on.
The only time it's not obviously on is when we're absorbed in something.
So we spend 70,
80,
90% of our time just listening to this default mode network,
All its stories.
And it also creates the story,
The image of it's happening to me in the future.
That's an image.
That's part of the story.
And there's your source of anxiety.
So what do we do?
Have in a thought.
That's a foal.
Come back to what's really happening.
Feet on the floor.
To breathing.
The sound of silence.
Traffic.
If you're in daily life,
You're not going to be able to sit down and do that.
Cross your legs and all that stuff.
Feel the end of the out-breath.
Label the thoughts.
It's so valuable.
I'm having a thought,
I'm going to fail that exam,
Whatever it is.
It's just a fragment of unreality.
That's what it is.
It's unreality.
Now if a thought appears,
It would be good to do a bit more revision.
Fine.
Functional Yeah,
Do a bit of prep for the exam.
Fine.
And the work is each moment.
Don't wait till you're sitting on the cushion.
Each moment.
But I call it the self-centered network.
Self-referential thought,
That's on!
And if you don't start to label your thought,
It's not going to go away.
It's feeding you.
It's feeding his stories.
It's up to you to unsubscribe.
I can't do it for you.
And it needs to be consistent,
I'll be honest with you.
For most of us,
This has been going on for decades.
Take a couple of deep breaths.
Slide into the body.
Oh,
Hello body.
Is feeling the breath.
The five senses are not troubled.
The hearing is never troubled.
That silence,
That space before a thought,
Appears is not troubled.
Space can't be troubled.
But we jump over that.
To go for a ride.
Where are you right now?
Is there any tension anywhere?
Just feel it,
Give it space.
No pushing it away.
Just jump off that ride.
Listen to the silence.
Feel the breath.
Whatever.
Having a thought.
You're just having a thought.
Where is the attention?
Allow yourself to relax.
You lose your way,
It's okay.
Take a deep breath.
Just thinking,
That's all it was.
Toilet ever is.
Again and again we get caught.
Again and again we.
Their blue thoughts.
We come back to what's actually happening.
With persistence but also with kindness.
What's happening?
Okay,
Bring this to the end.
A little stretch or whatever Thank you guys.
