The Subtle Art of Losing Yourself (2024) Full Movie | George Thompson | Nature, Mind & Mental Health
The Subtle Art of Losing Yourself_ is a 2024 philosophical documentary by adventurer-filmmaker George Thompson, executive produced by Louie Schwartzberg of _Fantastic Fungi_. It’s not a scripted drama — it’s a personal journey through the harsh Scottish winter wilderness asking “who am I?”. With vulnerability + playful humor, it blends nature footage, science, and ancient philosophy to show how connecting with nature helps mental health and balance. Runtime ∼45 min. Tagline: “Out in the wild, find what is within”
Filmmaker George Thompson adventures alone into the Scottish mountains during winter, a time of environmental crisis, mental health struggles, and disconnection. bed5
He invites viewers to “lose yourself” in nature to discover yourself. By observing the astonishing intelligence of mountain animals and exploring human evolution, George uncovers lessons about the secrets of the human mind and our place in the universe. bed5
The film shows how the stories we tell about ourselves shape not just our lives, but the future of the planet. George shares his own anxiety and feeling overwhelmed by modern life, then how getting into wild places gave him resilience, meaning, and balance. bed5
Core message: When we connect with our true selves through nature, balance is possible for people and planet. It’s less “losing yourself” as destruction, more “losing ego” to find clarity.
George Thompson Filmmaker, narrator, philosophical adventurer
Executive Producer: Louie Schwartzberg - _Fantastic Fungi_
Director/Writer: George Thompson
#TheSubtleArtOfLosingYourself #GeorgeThompson #LouieSchwartzberg #NatureDocumentary #MentalHealth #Mindfulness #ScotlandWilderness #Philosophy #BalanceIsPossible #SelfDiscovery #RomanticDrama, #movies, #film, #movie, #cinema, #films, #hollywood, #actor, #s, #love, #art, #cinematography, #netflix, #horror, #actress, #moviescenes, #music, #filmmaking, #cinephile, #tv, #horrormovies, #bollywood, #comedy, #movienight, #photography, #cine, #instagood, #instagram, #director, #moviereview, #drama, #AdultMovies, #RomanceMovies, #SexMovies, #XXX, #XX,
Genre: Documentary, Philosophy, Nature, Self-Help
Release: London premiere Oct 19, 2024. Digital/Streaming Oct 28, 2024
Runtime: 45 min
Language: English
The Subtle Art of Losing Yourself_ is a 2024 philosophical documentary by adventurer-filmmaker George Thompson, executive produced by Louie Schwartzberg of _Fantastic Fungi_. It’s not a scripted drama — it’s a personal journey through the harsh Scottish winter wilderness asking “who am I?”. With vulnerability + playful humor, it blends nature footage, science, and ancient philosophy to show how connecting with nature helps mental health and balance. Runtime ∼45 min. Tagline: “Out in the wild, find what is within”
Filmmaker George Thompson adventures alone into the Scottish mountains during winter, a time of environmental crisis, mental health struggles, and disconnection. bed5
He invites viewers to “lose yourself” in nature to discover yourself. By observing the astonishing intelligence of mountain animals and exploring human evolution, George uncovers lessons about the secrets of the human mind and our place in the universe. bed5
The film shows how the stories we tell about ourselves shape not just our lives, but the future of the planet. George shares his own anxiety and feeling overwhelmed by modern life, then how getting into wild places gave him resilience, meaning, and balance. bed5
Core message: When we connect with our true selves through nature, balance is possible for people and planet. It’s less “losing yourself” as destruction, more “losing ego” to find clarity.
George Thompson Filmmaker, narrator, philosophical adventurer
Executive Producer: Louie Schwartzberg - _Fantastic Fungi_
Director/Writer: George Thompson
#TheSubtleArtOfLosingYourself #GeorgeThompson #LouieSchwartzberg #NatureDocumentary #MentalHealth #Mindfulness #ScotlandWilderness #Philosophy #BalanceIsPossible #SelfDiscovery #RomanticDrama, #movies, #film, #movie, #cinema, #films, #hollywood, #actor, #s, #love, #art, #cinematography, #netflix, #horror, #actress, #moviescenes, #music, #filmmaking, #cinephile, #tv, #horrormovies, #bollywood, #comedy, #movienight, #photography, #cine, #instagood, #instagram, #director, #moviereview, #drama, #AdultMovies, #RomanceMovies, #SexMovies, #XXX, #XX,
Genre: Documentary, Philosophy, Nature, Self-Help
Release: London premiere Oct 19, 2024. Digital/Streaming Oct 28, 2024
Runtime: 45 min
Language: English
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:09The great teachers of history all taught know thyself. They promise when we understand who
00:14we really are we gain wisdom and with wisdom we live in peace.
00:28Looking at everything that's happening in the world the whole self-awareness and peace thing
00:32could do with some work but i can vouch living in peace is hard but i have found through trying
00:38to be less confused and anxious that humanity's discovered some awesome things about who we are
00:43that have helped me feel more grounded less confused but i'm still on my journey which is
00:49why i'm here in the Cairngorne some of the fiercest nature that the uk has to offer to see what
00:54being
00:55in nature can teach us about our nature and so i invite you to join me for the adventure we're
01:02going to see what are these great teachings that can help us live with wisdom and can we not just
01:06rely on other people what can we learn about ourselves through our own intuition and can the
01:12mountain teach us anything about living in peace for once let's explore that age-old cliche of
01:19question who am i
02:18When you're in the
02:19city what animals do you see? Pigeons, seagulls, everyone's pets. It's easy to take the
02:24mysteriousness of a poodle for granted but when I'm here in the Scottish winter my toes are
02:30freezing off. I'm seeing these animals survive. I'm struck by the extraordinary miracle we find
02:36ourselves involved with. It's another species of living being here on planet earth and it's having
02:42an experience. Seeming emotions like fear and care for family and seeking warmth. It might be a bit
02:52of an unconventional place to start our journey trying to understand ourselves by looking at
02:56animals. If they can feel things what does that teach us about our feelings? Who we are? Where
03:03we come from? What does that life teach us about this life?
03:22Maybe not a lot. I mean we are different from the animals. I want us to get back up the
03:27mountain
03:27eventually but first there's a few things that would be good for us to understand. Like how do you
03:32understand yourself today? Because our societies have inherited some ideas that see the animals
03:38very differently from us indeed with huge implications for how we feel about ourselves
03:43and our place in the universe.
03:48For Descartes, one of the founding thinkers of modern science and philosophy,
03:52he believed that animals had no mind at all. They were automata on conscious machines.
03:59He justified gruesome experiments on live animals, arguing the cries of apparent agony were no more
04:05than automatic responses. They can't believe only humans had mind or for him it was a spiritual thing.
04:13Only man had the spirit given by God that existed independently from the body. It was these
04:19transcendent minds or spirits that they can't believe gave humans the unique capacity of self-awareness
04:26and intelligence. So that you could say probably the most famous line in western philosophy,
04:31I think therefore I am.
04:37These ideas created splits in how we understand ourselves. One between our minds and our bodies,
04:43that we are our minds or spirits in a body separate from it. And a second split between the human
04:50and nature. If it's only us that have minds or spirits, then it's only us that are intelligent
04:55or sacred. Our bodies, the animals, nature then are not intelligent, inferior, automatic. Science in the
05:03subsequent years, they got rid of the spirits and the sacredness, but they still kept this idea that
05:08rational thinking minds are the only intelligence in the universe. Which gave us a feeling of isolation,
05:15that we are this blip of intelligence facing an otherwise not intelligent automatic universe.
05:23There are many forms of these ideas and science and religions and we were promised when we understand
05:29ourselves we gain wisdom and we live in peace. So I wonder, is this who we are?
05:38So who are you? Are you a mind or spirit in a body? Is there mind in nature? Where does
05:44your intelligence come from?
05:46And can understanding any of this help us live in peace?
05:52So I'm going to do something a little bit unusual for a film and invite you to try some stuff
05:56with me
05:57so you can see what you can learn about yourself through your own experience. So let's explore these
06:02ideas that our thinking is the source of our identity and that makes us different from the animals.
06:08So if you'd like to join me, I invite you to rub your fingertips together.
06:12It's basic, but we can get deep with it. So just being present with the sensations happening right now,
06:19maybe friction, heat, moisture. And that's an experience not of thoughts with words, but a direct
06:27sensation, right? And now if you think about somebody that you love, maybe family, friends, pets,
06:33and you think about the experience of love, that experience is not a voice in your head saying,
06:38love, love, love, love, love. You know, it's an emotion. It's a feeling. And so simply by paying
06:45attention to our own experience, we found that I think Therefore I Am can only be part of the story
06:51of
06:51who we are. I feel Therefore I Am is an essential part of being human. And yes, this is simple.
06:59But for me,
07:00reconnecting with this fact was life changing.
07:05When I finished education, I descended into confusion and anxiety, not sure what I was doing
07:10with my life. Searching for peace, I journeyed to China, hoping Kung Fu might make me stronger.
07:16I tried to get into a Kung Fu monastery, failed, tried to find a Kung Fu school. But by accident,
07:22the locals took me to a Tai Chi school. Tai Chi, I thought that's for older people,
07:27but I tried it and fell in love with it. Tai Chi is a moving meditation like yoga. And practicing
07:33it,
07:34I experience what we're talking about. I'm not just my thoughts. And I can hang out in my feelings
07:40and sensations where there's no words telling me I'm confused and lost.
08:03On our journey towards peace, it's helpful to know that we're not just our thoughts,
08:07so we don't always have to be thinking. And you don't have to try Tai Chi to learn this. We
08:12found
08:12this through observing our own experiences, that sensations are an option. So let's see if we can
08:18take a second look at the animals and see what observation can teach us about them.
08:43If we spend time with animals, we see they're not automatic machines. Instead, they are very much
08:48conscious, here and aware. And they are creative, responding to life intelligently.
09:01Science since Descartes' time has found that animals, they're made up of the same sort of stuff.
09:0680% of the genes that we have in our DNA, squirrels have as well. And a quick shout out
09:11to the plants,
09:13even celery. 50% of the genes that we have, celery has as well.
09:22Very few people take Descartes' extreme views. But have we recognized both in how we understand
09:27ourselves and collectively, the extent to which we share our experiences, our emotions, our intelligence,
09:34with the rest of life.
10:10So we're at the start of understanding ourselves.
10:13We have an experiential sense of self, which we could call the sensor, that complex array
10:18of emotions and sensations that give us this feeling of being.
10:22And the animals have it too.
10:26But still, despite these similarities, it wasn't unreasonable of Descartes to see us
10:31humans as fundamentally different.
10:33I mean, the squirrels can't give lifts to friends in camper vans.
10:37Surely it is our thinking, our reasoning, that does distinguish us from the rest of nature.
10:44So yeah, we've got to understand where does our ability to remember our email passwords
10:49come from?
10:49Where does that voice in our heads fit into who we are?
10:56I want to show you something close to the mountain, an ancient burial ground that can
11:00help us understand the origins of the human mind.
11:15This is a burial ground made in the Bronze Age.
11:18And it's clear that people that made it here 4,000 years ago had brains capable of complex
11:22thinking.
11:23They could create stories that motivated the community to come together to create this
11:27structure.
11:29Now, here's where things get quite mind-boggling.
11:32We found evidence to say that it's not just our species that had minds capable of storytelling.
11:44This is a human skull.
11:46This skull looks human, but then the eyebrows are really far forward and the whole thing
11:50is shaped like a rugby ball.
11:52This is not a skull of a Homo sapien, but a Homo neanderthal.
11:56It's easy to forget that there have been over 20 species of human that have lived on our
12:01planet.
12:03What were these humans like?
12:09The Neanderthals lived in community.
12:11They made their own clothes out of animal hides.
12:14They made tools to help them hunt.
12:16And they wore feathers for decoration.
12:19And some of the skeletons we found had been laid in dug pits, with the person's hands placed
12:25supporting their heads as if they were resting asleep.
12:28The sites we found did not just have one skeleton, but many bodies.
12:33People of different ages.
12:34Children, parents, grandparents.
12:37Some bodies surrounded by antler horns and rhinoceros skulls.
12:42The Neanderthals buried their dead with care and in community.
12:46Why?
12:49What the burials we found tell us about what minds the Neanderthals had and so where our
12:54minds might come from isn't clear cut.
12:57You don't actually need complex ideas about life after death to motivate ritual behavior.
13:03Take elephants, for example.
13:04When one of their troop passes away, will come back to the body for many days after the death.
13:09Each member spending time in silence touching the body, showing their complex emotional life
13:15experiencing what we would likely call grief.
13:20The Neanderthals too, when their loved ones passed away, would have felt intense emotions.
13:25Heartache, rolling tension in the stomach.
13:27Maybe it was these emotions alone that motivated them to bury their loved ones with care.
13:32We didn't need to have ideas about what might happen after death.
13:35So, we need more evidence.
13:41And in 2013, archaeologists in France discovered something that shocked the world.
13:49350 meters deep into a cave, they found hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites had been broken
13:55off the cave walls and deliberately placed into large circles.
13:58And they found the remains of fires that had once been lit within them.
14:03The structure was so complex, the archaeologists assumed it must have been made by Homo sapiens.
14:08But when they dated the find, they found it to be an astonishing 174,000 years old.
14:15Long before Homo sapiens had reached Europe, implying its makers were the Neanderthals.
14:27What they found in that cave in France had no obvious purpose.
14:31It must have taken many hours to make.
14:32There had fires around it.
14:34The whole cave would have been choking with smoke.
14:36It seems to me very likely that there was a story motivating it.
14:41That that structure meant something to the Neanderthals.
14:43And even if that story was just made with basic language or images arising in the minds of the
14:49Neanderthals, that would mean that I think therefore I am, it's not just for us Homo sapiens.
15:02Descartes believed our thinking minds made us superior to the rest of nature.
15:07But we found evidence that the Neanderthals felt and thought in ways surprisingly similar to us.
15:13And we found the animals experience rich emotions and navigate their lives creatively.
15:19We haven't found any splits between humanity and nature or between our minds and bodies.
15:25So us asking where does our intelligence come from has led us to a bigger and deeper question.
15:31How is it that our planet is bursting with beings that are conscious, having experiences,
15:37and so are able to solve the challenges they face intelligently?
15:46What consciousness is, or how conscious life began on planet Earth, is a great mystery.
15:51Planet Earth was once just rocks and water.
15:54But what we can see from the fossil record is that life on Earth began billions of years ago.
16:00And through evolution became more and more complex.
16:02Eventually animals evolved and they began to experience emotions such as fear.
16:11And these emotions became more and more complex, like care for family or the desire to play.
16:17And eventually for some animals, thoughts and basic language began to arise in their minds,
16:23giving them the ability to interpret and tell stories about what they were experiencing.
16:27And for one animal, us Homo sapiens, we developed highly advanced language,
16:34which led to an explosion of human power and lots of questions.
16:42Every human culture has some form of spirituality or religion.
16:46Stories to help satisfy our natural curiosity.
16:50We want to understand who we are and what we are a part of.
17:05Given the infinite mystery we find ourselves involved with,
17:09any understanding of ourselves needs to be made with humility.
17:12As the Bible says, with humility comes wisdom.
17:15But we found we can, through observation, determine some of the principles that shape us and the universe.
17:23Science, at its core, is this process of observation.
17:27Making predictions about the world, collecting evidence, seeing what the evidence tells us.
17:34Science doesn't have to feel cold and mechanical.
17:37In fact, it's led us to an understanding that many wisdom traditions shared.
17:40Something that's truly inclusive and universal.
17:43That all of us, no matter our religion, nationality, gender or even our species,
17:49we all come from the same mysterious source.
18:02One of the great barriers to us finding peace is disconnection.
18:06And so if you have thoughts telling you that you're separate from the world,
18:10or there's nothing inspiring about you,
18:13shift your focus and reconnect with what you are a part of.
18:18You are made from the same energy that created the many humans,
18:21the plants, the animals and our precious, beautiful home, planet Earth.
18:37So, who are you?
18:39You are embodied awareness, mind and body coming from the same mysterious source.
18:44And we found you have two main ways of experiencing and understanding yourself.
18:48The first we called the sensor, the complex array of emotions and sensations
18:53that give us this feeling of being.
18:54And then there's what we could call the storyteller.
18:57That which watches what you experience and using thoughts narrates and interprets
19:03and creates stories about who you are.
19:06To really understand how the storyteller works can be life-changing.
19:17So, to demonstrate how this works, I'm going to look a wee bit silly for you.
19:23So, each ball is a thought, like, my name is George.
19:28I grew up in England.
19:29My love language is vegan brownies.
19:32I know all the words to the Tarzan soundtrack off by heart.
19:35And see, the story of who we are, we construct from thoughts that pop into our heads
19:40that we identify with.
19:42Would you like to meet your storyteller?
19:44What's your favourite thing to do?
19:46And what was that thought you just had?
19:48There you go, there's one of yours.
19:50And if we really understand this, it leads to something tragic that we can only laugh at.
19:56But there's nothing intrinsically George about me.
19:58If I was born in another country, I'd have different thoughts, I'd have a different story.
20:02And in the various times of my life where I have felt not good enough,
20:05it's not like not good enough is a physical quality of the universe.
20:09No, that feeling came from judgmental thoughts that popped into my head that I identified with.
20:15So isn't it astonishing, the amount of pain that we create in our lives,
20:20from the stories that are only true to the extent that we identify with
20:25and believe the thoughts that pop into our heads?
20:44I remember first reading classic spiritual books like The Power of Now and finding Daoism,
20:49the philosophy and the mountain where I was studying that I've since dedicated a lot of my life to.
20:53I remember these insight moments. Whoa!
20:57I'm not just my thoughts and not every thought I have needs to be true.
21:01Instead of fighting my thinking, I began to just pause and to be curious, noticing these stories,
21:07which created a space within for me to be able to choose my response.
21:11And a beautiful way that we can bring the practice of the pause into our everyday is with a mindful
21:17breath.
21:18I do this throughout the day. And if you'd like to join me, why don't we take a breath together?
21:23Breathing in together, softening the face,
21:27and breathing out, letting any tension go.
21:32Let's try one more of those. Breathing in. Can you soften even more?
21:39And breathing out, letting any tension go.
21:52If we notice painful thinking or stories, just pause, bring some curiosity to it,
21:59open some space within. And that space is our freedom.
22:15We were promised by the great teachers, when we understand ourselves,
22:18we gain wisdom and we live in peace.
22:20And indeed, we found that not just our thoughts, not every thought that we have is true.
22:24We found the practice of the pause, all important steps on the journey towards peace.
22:30But inevitably, even if we have insight today, maybe tomorrow we'll be back covered in takeaway
22:36grease, scrolling on TikTok, wondering, how did I get here again?
22:39So just knowing who we are isn't enough.
23:04So I've got my ice axe, crampons in the bag, I'm cold and we haven't even started yet.
23:09It's time for us to climb back up the mountain.
23:11Can the perspective it gives us help us understand how to transform
23:14what we've learned into wisdom that can actually help us?
23:19Where is this peace we've been promised?
23:37We found that we create our own stories through the thoughts that we identify with.
23:42Why is it then, if we do create our own stories, we tell such rubbish, negative stories?
23:47Why is inner peace so hard?
23:53So if I draw a line in the sandy rocks, it's not going to stay around for very long.
24:00If I scoop something a bit deeper, I could be around for a bit longer.
24:05Give water enough time and it can carve canyons out of sheer rock.
24:14Our brains work like this, you know, about neural pathways.
24:18The more you repeat certain behaviours, the more that neural pathway is strengthened.
24:22And this is essential.
24:23It gives us our habitual ways of thinking and being.
24:27Take the habit of worry, for example.
24:29It's a good idea for safety for us to sometimes worry about what might go wrong in the future.
24:34The challenge comes with what we do with these habits.
24:38So for me, in my time of crisis, a new character began to dominate my storytelling headspace,
24:45who I personified as a little evil wizard called the Underminer.
24:49And the Underminer channeled everything that was happening in my life through the habit of worry and negativity.
24:55So the fact that I was single and didn't have many friends, my Underminer would tell me I was flawed
25:00goods.
25:01And when I started getting anxious, my Underminer would tell me I was weak for being anxious.
25:06More and more of my life flowed into Underminer Valley until I lost all hope that I could feel better
25:12again.
25:25Rule number one of getting out of the hole, stop digging.
25:29How do we normally react to pain?
25:31I was beating myself up.
25:32Maybe we numb ourselves out or try and run away from ourselves.
25:35But all this does is just multiplies the pain that we're feeling.
25:39Wisdom traditions around the world all talk about the power of love and compassion.
25:44For us to be hurting in this often chaotic world doesn't make us weak or flawed.
25:49It's okay to not be okay.
25:51With compassion can we extend love and kindness to our whole selves, even the bits that we might not want.
25:57We can be with pain instead of lost in it.
26:06The acceptance of where we are is crucial on the journey towards peace.
26:11But we don't have to be stuck in Underminer Valley forever.
26:14There are more empowering ways of responding to the challenges of life.
26:18We just need to find them.
26:41The word wisdom derives from the root to see.
26:44It's no coincidence then that mountains around the world have been spiritual places.
26:50With perspective we see that we can choose how to respond to life.
26:55Look there's Underminer Valley, it still has its place.
26:58There's Play Valley, there's Creativity Creek.
27:01Wisdom is when we channel what happens in our lives towards the responses that serve harmony,
27:07that serve peace.
27:08And anyway, we're all unique, so your place of perspective will be different to mine.
27:13And the stories that empower you, you need to discover for yourself.
27:17But be empowered.
27:18And with patience, persistence and kindness, change, big or small, is possible.
27:41Even if you think you've found who you are, found a story that feels good,
27:46when the world changes and your old patterns start rumbling in.
27:50How do you respond?
27:53Left it quite late with the filming and the weather's turning.
27:56It's getting cold, it's still got quite a way to go.
28:14It's getting cold, we'll be all right, we'll get through.
28:41Change can be scary, which is why we crave certainty, certainty about how the world works,
28:46certainty about who we are, so we think we've got everything under control.
28:52But the only constant is change, the weather on the mountain is constantly changing,
28:56you're constantly changing, I'm constantly changing.
29:00Can we trust the intelligence of the life force that animates us?
29:05An intelligence that has produced the astonishing resilience that is you,
29:09that has produced the breathtaking beauty of the planet, all done without words.
29:15Finding yourself is great, the human being needs a story.
29:19We have roles to play as parents, children, employees, students, citizens.
29:24But know that the searching will never end.
29:27Can you also develop the subtle art of losing yourself?
29:32To surrender to the ever-changing flow, to not need a story,
29:37to embrace the mystery of your being, and so rest.
29:54On our journey towards understanding ourselves and living in peace,
29:58we've found that we create the stories of who we are from the thoughts that pop into our heads.
30:04And so we have the freedom to choose a story that empowers.
30:09But we and the world are always changing, and too complex to fully capture with words.
30:16Thankfully, we don't always need to be thinking.
30:19We can hang out in our sensations, and so lose ourselves.
30:25And one of the most reliable ways I've found to lose myself is being in nature.
30:31When I feel stuck in self-criticism and painful stories,
30:34If I can get out and walk in landscapes bigger than myself,
30:38I'm reminded of the great tapestry of life that I am a part of.
30:43And George and all my stories feel less and less important.
30:47As my mind softens, I find moments of no thought.
30:53George disappears, and what remains is a simple presence, ease and connection.
31:14Mountains have been great teachers in my life,
31:16and so if you can get out and have some adventures, go for it.
31:19But I know you may not have access to mountains or fancy kit like this.
31:23What we've learned can only truly be impactful if it helps us back in
31:27the mystifying mountains of modern living.
31:29It's time for me to go home, back to the city.
31:52The intelligence of the universe has achieved some pretty awesome stuff.
31:55It's easy to forget, but all of our technology is still nature expressing itself.
32:01There's much to celebrate about humanity.
32:03But at the same time, our modern world brings with it big challenges.
32:09I've been back in the city for a few months now,
32:11and the challenging bit is living with wisdom, living in peace.
32:16And if that resonates with you, we're not alone with that.
32:19To struggle is to be human,
32:21which is why the wisdom traditions have always offered practices.
32:25Practices to help us stay in connection with our wiser selves.
32:30And I want to share with you a practice that has been really helpful for me.
32:33But first, a ghost story.
32:36Woo-ha-ha.
32:38No, not really.
32:39If we imagine that our consciousness is like a light,
32:42our awareness illuminates that which it focuses on.
32:45And we've been shining the light of our awareness in the world and ourselves.
32:49But it's hard to live what we've been learning, because for some reason,
32:52the default setting of human consciousness is this.
32:55We're flitting between cravings and distractions the whole time,
32:58which means that we stay unconscious. And it's only if we can learn to steady our awareness,
33:05to rest, that we see ourselves clearly and so see our potential for wisdom and for peace.
33:13And this brings us to meditation. Meditation is a big word, but it's about presence.
33:19If your awareness is on what you're doing as opposed to lost in thought, that's meditation.
33:24Meditation as a practice is training our awareness to rest, to find that presence more easily.
33:32Meditation has been discovered all around the world over history. It's helped me so much.
33:37And I thought maybe we could try some together so you can experience for yourself how you don't
33:42always have to be caught in thought, how you can lose yourself, how you can rest,
33:46how to stay in connection with your wisdom to help you live in peace in your every day.
33:51So would you like to join me for a meditation?
33:55If you would, then you can be sitting in any way you'd like to.
33:59And an invitation, and this is only an option and taking as long as you want with it,
34:04is for you to close your eyes and to see if you can find your breath.
34:12Where is your breath right now? Maybe coming in and out through your nostrils,
34:16maybe out of your mouth. And can you slow your breath down? Slow your breath down.
34:30Softening the face. If there's any tension in your forehead or your eyes, allow them to unwind.
34:38If there's any tension in your cheeks or your jaw, allow them to sink.
34:49The sensation of your breath is part of your sensor, that feeling of being.
34:56You're not just your thoughts, and so you can rest in your sensations.
35:02And so can you kindly be watching your breath coming in and out?
35:17And you may also notice thinking. That's your storyteller in action.
35:23And thinking, like the sensation of your breath, is an experience arising in your awareness.
35:30You're not just your thoughts. Not every thought that you have is true.
35:34You are the embodied awareness that watches it all.
35:39And so you have the freedom, when you notice thinking, to just let it go.
35:45To bring your awareness back to the breath.
35:57Meditation is not about having a quiet mind.
36:00Instead, it is the process of returning. We get lost in thought, and we come back.
36:05And how gently can you come back?
36:08Can you come back without judgment?
36:12Can you rest with the breath?
36:23If we use meditation to improve ourselves, then we're back in thinking and stories.
36:28And they were precisely the things that got us confused.
36:32So can you hold this openness, this space, for its own sake?
36:37With no expectations of magic fixes or future rewards.
36:43Nothing to do, nowhere to go.
36:47No one to be.
36:51Can you lose yourself?
36:54Can you rest?
36:58Can you rest?
37:00Can you rest?
37:19Can you rest?
37:25And gently, beginning to come back, bringing some movement into your shoulders.
37:30Some shoulder rolls, and then taking as long as you want, beginning to come back.
37:36And opening your eyes.
37:40It's a real privilege to be practicing with you.
37:44And for me, doing a daily meditation practice has been training in my awareness to find that kindness, to find
37:50that spaciousness more easily.
37:54Nothing to do.
37:55What do you want?
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