Mindful Impact Podcast With Natasha Mason

Natasha Mason is an insight timer meditation teacher and the founder and director of Nourish Melbourne, a carefully curated community of holistic, organic, and wellness businesses dedicated to optimizing health, wellbeing, and happiness. Natasha runs "Learn how to meditate" courses.
We discuss alternate nostril breathing. Meditation Myths. How to meditate. Coping with covid. Prioritizing meditation, and much more :)

Transcript

Welcome to Episode 80 with Natasha Mason.

Welcome to the Mindful Impact Podcast.

I'm your host,

Justin Francisco.

This is the place where you'll discover how to be the most mindfully impactful spouse,

Parent,

And career leader you are destined to be.

A new expert guest will be on every Monday to discuss topics using mindfulness techniques with family and business leadership.

Thank you for listening,

And please don't forget to rate and subscribe.

It really helps allow me to keep recording these episodes for you.

Natasha Mason is a wellbeing advisor for a company called Nourish Melbourne.

She's from Melbourne,

Australia,

And we had a great conversation about meditation and awareness.

She's a meditation teacher,

Also on Insight Timer,

And just a beautiful soul,

And talks about struggles during what they're going through now as a lockdown in her hometown in Australia because of more of an outbreak of COVID.

So she talks about emotional struggles around that and how she's coping.

She is just a powerful force for people that are learning to meditate.

So she teaches courses on learning to meditate.

Their two-day course,

Her next course is September 21st and 23rd.

Now based on the time zone,

If you're East Coast,

It would be a 5.

30 a.

M.

For those courses on September 21st and 23rd,

5.

30 each day for three days,

Which is a pretty good time because the whole family is sleeping and you can practice undisturbed.

The best time to learn is in the morning when your mind's not distracted and fresh.

So without further ado,

Well first off,

You could follow her on Instagram at underscore Natasha Mason,

And she's also at Nourish Melbourne if you're interested in checking that out.

But without further ado,

Let's jump into our conversation.

Thank you for listening,

And again,

Don't forget to rate,

Subscribe,

And if you have any questions,

Go ahead and email me,

Justin at justinfrancisco.

Com.

Natasha Mason,

I'm going to do the introduction separate,

So I just wanted to first ask you the same question I ask every guest I have on.

When you wake up in the morning,

Right now,

I guess you just recently woke up.

It's morning time for you.

For me,

It's nighttime.

But when you wake up,

What makes your heart just beat out loud,

Just sing for the day?

It's more difficult at the moment to make it sing,

But the thing that makes me get out of bed early at 5 a.

M.

Is that idea of new possibilities,

And that something amazing can and will happen.

So it is a difficult time,

Especially here in Melbourne,

Victoria,

Australia,

Being under such strict lockdown.

But yeah,

I still believe that every day,

If we have that intention,

That something amazing will happen.

I love the honesty and straightforwardness with that,

Because in the U.

S.

,

We went through this quarantine,

A lockdown,

Early on.

So are you guys not being familiar with how everything's happening in Melbourne?

I have to ask,

What's going on?

Are you guys on a strict lockdown suddenly out of nowhere?

No,

We have been now for,

Well,

We only really came out of it for two weeks in June.

But strict lockdown for now,

Six weeks,

And there's going to be another three weeks.

And then it's some very,

Very,

Very gradual reopening of businesses.

What is very few cases here in Melbourne?

Yeah,

We're getting something like 50 cases a day.

And there's 6.

3 million people in Victoria,

In the state of Victoria.

So that's a whole other story right now,

But the rest of the country looks at this state and says it's just a little bit too strict.

So yeah,

We don't have access to daycare for the kids.

We can't leave the house for more than an hour a day.

It's masks outside everywhere.

If not,

You get a fine.

If police see you,

It's an on the spot fine.

What else?

Yeah,

There's hardly anything open except for to take away from your cafe or restaurant or obviously your supermarkets and petrol stations.

Oh,

Wow,

Natasha.

I would say 90% of my listeners are from the United States.

We don't get a lot of news about what's happening in Australia with this.

So that's really interesting to hear.

I had zero idea that it was that lockdown.

For us right now,

We just have to wear masks inside businesses,

But everything's open.

Jim's just opened up,

Very strict.

So we're trying to reopen in New York State,

Reopen everything.

And every state's a little bit different with the opening phases.

And we hope we don't have to go back to a strict lockdown,

Like very similar to how you described.

Yeah,

I hope not either.

This is what we're in at the moment.

It's been a long,

Long year really,

Since March.

Have you been able to keep your meditation practice up with it,

With that going on?

Every day,

Twice a day.

This time has proven to me how important meditation is and all of the other practices that go with it,

Like yoga,

Like keeping up your movement at home.

The first lockdown,

When this all surfaced and it was new,

I thought,

I'm going to let my gym,

My membership go.

And I go to a usually like a small scale studio where there's eight to 10 of us with one trainer.

And I thought,

Look,

I'll just chill out,

Take a break.

And then I realized,

I probably didn't do myself that much of a favor.

We went to that,

Oh,

Let's just drink a bit more or eat a bit more.

It'll be over.

And then,

Yeah,

The meditation stayed.

That never goes.

But yeah,

Brought back in.

I was up early this morning,

Online,

On Zoom with my trainer.

And this is what it is at the moment.

We can't go anywhere.

So yeah,

Keeping these points in the day are really important to kind of not going off track.

You know,

I have my meditation time,

I have my training booked,

Space in the middle because with two young kids,

We don't know what's going to happen.

And even with my work,

I haven't been able to do a lot of work.

So not only am I a meditation teacher,

But I run a business here in Melbourne called Nourish Melbourne,

And it's a holistic health and well-being membership platform.

And we usually run face to face events,

And we have a membership so you can use it at all these wonderful holistic therapies and places which you can't at the moment,

Apart from those you can access online.

So yeah,

Being able to even work on that,

It's tricky.

It's tricky.

So it's a bit of a juggle.

But you know,

Having these built up this habit already before COVID struck has paid off,

I think for me,

Definitely feeling a wave of emotions and you know,

Being humans and human beings,

We're not exempt from emotions,

No matter if you've meditated for a day or 10 years,

It doesn't matter.

And that those emotions are still going to be there.

Sadness,

Anger,

Frustration,

Definitely.

Because so on Sunday just past we had the announcement that our current strict lockdown is going for an extra three weeks.

So in Melbourne,

You can feel these energies of people,

Why,

You know,

We're doing the right thing.

So there's a frustration,

Energies being withdrawn.

And so we're doing all of these things to just support ourselves,

Just stay afloat right now.

And I must say also with amongst my friends and amongst the community,

We're reaching out a lot more than we would have at any other time to check in on people because mental health and suicide has skyrocketed.

Even here,

You know,

Around the world,

I'm sure but mental health hotlines,

They're bombarded,

You know,

It's,

There's gonna be a lot of work to dig out of this.

Yeah,

Inch wearing.

So you know,

Men,

How are your kids right now?

Almost two and five.

Oh my gosh,

This exact age of my kids.

Two years old and five years old.

So everything you're talking about,

I completely understand with quarantine and in lockdown,

And I feel for you,

Natasha,

Everybody out there right now,

Because I know,

I know the roller coaster and you and I love that you said that we're all just human.

So you know,

We have a moat we have these things,

These frustrations,

Sadness is like,

Just because you meditate doesn't mean that that goes away.

Like some people think it Yeah,

Totally.

Hold on one second.

I'm gonna shut this thing up.

Hold on one sec.

So it would I like to say that,

You know,

It allows us to manage those a little bit better,

Right?

Those tough times those those rough moments a little bit better and not get too caught up in them.

You right now,

And right before we were pressed to record for for everybody listening.

I had somebody reach out to me today of all days,

And asked me to introduce them to meditation.

And they were talking about how they were just their anxiety has been through the roof.

They they've been frustrated a lot more and people have just been,

You know,

What he said was in one word or another.

He was getting short fuse more,

I guess you could say like things were really bothering him a lot more and he would blow up.

He's noticing more and more often he was drinking a little bit more and he's like,

The days are just getting a hold of me.

And he's like,

I saw your posts.

I saw your stuff that you put out there.

Can you help me?

Can you tell me about like this meditation thing?

So I was like,

Cool,

You know,

I let him talk and vent and,

And it was like,

What's really cool about this,

I'm gonna have you talk about this,

Natasha,

Is I noticed with him specifically,

Which was really cool,

Is there was from what he was saying,

It was like he was aware of all this stuff and now this individual was ready to make a shift.

He was ready to make like a dramatic change in his life.

And that's what like made me super excited to talk to him and knowing that he was actually going to,

You know,

Try and begin something.

So I want to ask you because you have a course,

You talk to people,

You teach this like beginners to meditation,

What are some,

Because I struggled a little bit,

I felt myself rambling a little bit too much when I talked to him.

What are some things that you say to an individual that's looking at,

You know,

What,

Life's just getting a little difficult,

Maybe I need something like meditation in my life?

What do you say to them?

Well,

That,

Like you just said,

That is amazing that he is aware of the fact that,

You know what,

I'm me,

The wonderful being that I am is being suppressed by these things I'm trying to fill my day with,

Maybe like drinking a bit more,

Eating a bit more,

Not feeling good,

Realizing it is so powerful because that individual is ready to make a change.

And this is a number one problem with stress because essentially what this person is saying is I am too stressed and I need help.

Actually making that acknowledgement and knowing you are too stressed is actually,

Is one of the number one problems about stress is that most people can't realize that they,

They're not aware.

And so they keep going about their day.

They keep going about life,

Taking on the demands and this extra stress,

Especially at the moment with so much uncertainty.

And so to realize that is wonderful.

I think if someone says to me,

They're quite anxious,

They have anxiety.

I don't know if I'd be,

You know,

I'd have to talk to this person a bit more to find out a little bit more and dig a bit deeper,

But I probably wouldn't be saying,

Hey,

Come and learn meditation and meditate 20 minutes twice a day,

Because that could be a little bit too much right now.

A little bit too much.

I would be having a chat to that person and probably prescribing them,

You know,

Breathing exercises,

You know,

That they can,

They can do when they're,

They're feeling that shortness of breath,

That shallow breathing,

That anxiety takeover.

And as soon as they're aware,

You know,

Stop and close the eyes and,

And do a breathing practice because this will quickly settle down the nervous system.

You walk us through a short breathing practice.

Yeah.

So it's called pranayama.

Pranayama is,

You know,

And if you've done yoga classes,

Anyone listening,

You,

You might have done this at the end of a yoga class.

And so you might've done this to Justin.

I'm not sure.

So really it's quite easy.

We take the right hand and we use our thumb and our ring finger.

Okay.

And what we do first is we want to block the right nostril and let the air out of the left nostril.

So we breathe out and then we want to take that air in the left nostril again.

And then we block that left nostril and we open the right and we let the air out.

And then we let the air in through the nose on the right.

Block that right nostril,

Open the left and let it out and keep going.

You could keep going for anywhere from two to five minutes or up to 10 minutes,

But two minutes is enough for that person to feel grounded,

To feel a calmer,

To feel the breath,

You know,

That that breath will be not stopping here.

It will be,

You know,

Right down into the belly.

That is,

You know,

For someone who's experiencing anxiety,

Great place to start.

First step would be saying,

Well,

You know,

Maybe you want to download a free app.

There's so many wonderful apps,

Aren't there?

So you know,

My favorite one is One Giant Mind.

One Giant Mind.

Wow.

Okay.

So I have downloaded,

Bought and talked to people about like,

I don't know,

Maybe 10 apps.

I've never heard of one.

So there's another one,

One Giant Mind.

I haven't heard of it.

Oh no.

Is it Australia based?

Well,

Actually that,

Well,

The founder is Australian.

But he took it to New York for a few years and he was,

So the founder,

Co-founder Johnny Pollard,

He was actually living in New York for a few years.

He's now back in Australia.

He lives near Byron Bay in New South Wales.

But yeah,

He took One Giant Mind to the States and I know he was doing a lot of work there and working with the likes of,

If you might know,

Jesse Israel,

Who has the big quiet.

And you know,

They were running lots of events together,

But in terms of the app,

Yeah,

Founded in Australia,

It was based then in the States for a bit,

But now the founder's back here.

But yeah,

Anyone around the world,

Obviously it's an app.

Look it up.

Beautiful,

You know,

A 12 day introduction.

So it will remind you,

You know,

Every day you can hop on and do a meditation.

It will guide you,

It will instruct you.

And this is a beautiful way to start.

And that's how I started.

You know,

I started with an app.

It was like,

Oh,

Meditation.

This is interesting.

I've read so much,

You know,

All these people who say,

I get up in the morning and meditate.

So I got the app and then one thing led to another and I finally came to learning with a teacher and that's when it really stuck.

Who's your teacher?

Who's my teacher?

Laura Pool.

She's a Vedic meditation teacher here in Melbourne.

And she was actually one of the original co-founders of One Giant Mind.

Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah,

We use Headspace a lot.

Of course it's a big one.

And then I learned from personally,

Or I used the course on Waking Up app with Sam Harris.

There was a 50 day learning and then journey and it was all different meditations.

It was pretty wild.

It was out there.

There was open-eyed meditations,

Mirror meditations.

It was one for like exploring all different avenues.

You know,

It was really cool.

Oh yeah.

You know,

Cause meditation really,

There's so many myths,

There's so many preconceptions of what is meditation.

Meditation is anywhere we place our mental awareness for some sort of extended period of time.

You know,

Some people go out for a surf and they think,

Oh,

That's my meditation because they are in this state of flow and they're out on the water and they have no concept of time,

No even real concept of space.

They're in this zone of no surfing or swimming and that's meditation to them.

Um,

Someone can be out walking,

You know,

On a nature walk and think that's meditation.

The thing about meditation though is each kind of meditation does a different thing for our mind.

That's really important to understand that,

Especially say a guided meditation.

You might know about the app Insight Timer.

I'm not sure if you use that one.

Yeah.

I'm a teacher on there right now.

Oh yeah,

Me too.

I'm just on there.

So I literally just,

I,

Like,

I say that,

Like I've been on there,

Right?

So I was,

I literally did my teaching thing like,

I don't know,

A week ago.

Maybe.

Okay.

I have three,

I have three uploaded right now.

So you got,

I'm like a go,

Go,

Go kind of person.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I see it.

Yeah.

Like I said,

My time is yeah.

Productivity right now is yeah.

I'll have to check you out.

I'll do the Tasha.

Like everybody listening.

Yes.

Go on there.

I'll do the Tasha Mason on Insight Timer as you're talking to me here.

I'll look you up.

I'll follow you.

I think this is a beautiful,

This,

This,

This app is so nice to be able to.

It's beautiful.

I think,

You know,

I think,

You know,

My mate,

Jason McGrice too.

I had it.

Yeah.

I had him on my podcast.

Yeah.

You did.

Yeah.

Oh,

That's cool.

You guys are friends.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

And he's still on the course and he's still running it.

Running the second round now for people who want to learn how to publish meditations,

How to do it,

You know,

How to unlock that creativity and how to even go through the writing process and recording,

You know,

Choosing new music and publishing it.

So I actually learned from him.

Oh,

Cool.

Maybe that's how I got connected with you is I saw you through there and I was like,

I want to talk to her.

Yeah.

Nice.

Did you find yourself editing a lot?

Like I listened to my meditation and I'm like,

Oh,

I can use more space here.

Did you,

Did you find yourself doing that?

The first one?

Yes.

It was,

Oh,

I found it so hard.

The second one,

Oh,

Once I recorded it,

It was up in the next few hours.

I,

No problem.

Very easy.

But yeah,

You can spend too much time thinking,

Oh,

Should I leave an extra minute in between or should I change this word that I used here and be one who's listening is not going to have any idea what you thought,

You know,

Um,

As long as you get that intention through,

I think in your recording,

Then you just want it to be so impact.

Like people listening,

Like when you,

When you record a meditation and it's out there for everybody,

Don't you just want it to be like so impactful for them and be like,

Yes,

That's why you kind of care.

That's the reason we're there.

You know,

I think that's the reason we both do what we do is that it's,

You want to connect with someone's being to say,

You know what,

You are powerful.

You have infinite potential.

You have something beautiful within you that,

You know,

From the moment we're born,

It's,

It's,

It's a conditioning that it gets taken away slowly by what others think you should be and,

And what you should say and,

And,

You know,

What you should do for your job and so forth.

This is how we grow up.

I think for 99% of us to the point we then realize,

Hang on a minute.

I don't think I'm using my talents,

My,

Um,

You know,

Revealing my real truth about why I'm here.

And that's always to help others.

Every single human being has a role to help others,

You know,

To,

To,

Um,

That's what I'm looking for,

To,

Um,

Contribute to the evolution of all humans,

First and foremost to themselves.

This is the work that we have to do.

Yeah.

It's hard to fill all those cups without first filling your own.

Right.

That's,

That's super important for sure.

Um,

And yeah,

You know,

To go back to the person early,

He,

The big thing that struck him was,

Uh,

He started,

He has a disease now in his gut,

His intestines and the doctor said it was like 99% due to stress in his life.

So that was another eye opening moment where he had to take a look at things.

And so that's what can happen,

Right?

The ripple effect of just constant,

Like,

Who knows what could result from that.

Um,

And then,

Um,

And then I,

And I brought this up cause you just said something and I lost my train of thought as I,

As I said that,

But,

Um,

Yeah,

So that's,

That's,

That's totally,

Totally why,

Um,

Why we do that,

Why we put our,

Our,

Our,

Our meditations up.

So I want to make sure I get this released before your,

Before,

Um,

Your learn to meditate.

Right.

Let me go in here.

Yeah,

That's,

That's running,

Uh,

21st to the 23rd of September.

I'm not sure how that aligns in terms of the time for anyone in the U S uh,

As a line,

Obviously anyone can join,

But for that time slot,

I'm not sure if it'll work.

What time are you doing them?

Well,

It's in the evening Australian time.

So,

Um,

That would be,

I'm here.

So that would,

That would be okay.

I mean,

It would be 9am or 7 30.

Yeah.

So it's just 12 hours.

Cause right now it's 6 30 PM.

My time.

Yep.

Um,

Okay.

Yeah,

It would be,

What time is it?

What time is it there?

It's 8 30 AM.

Okay.

8 30.

Yeah.

You're doing okay.

So let's think here.

Gosh,

You know what?

I,

It's so hard to do that.

That it's like 14 hours.

I'm doing 10 hours.

Hang on.

Um,

I'm um,

I'm just doing a little,

Uh,

Oh,

Hang on.

No.

Okay.

Just cause you meditate doesn't make us really good at math guys for people.

I should be able to figure this out.

I feel like it's because we know,

You know,

We're,

We're recording.

I know.

I thought I found a good site to just,

Um,

That's okay.

Um,

We'll,

We'll sort that out,

But I'll put it in the show notes for sure.

Yeah.

I do offer,

Um,

You know,

The next one after that could be morning,

Um,

Australian time.

So,

You know,

Not long after now that I'd be starting.

So then it would be evening for anyone in the U S so.

Okay.

What time are these ones starting?

I'm sorry if I missed that.

What time are there?

Is this new class?

So yeah,

This course it's so it's,

Um,

Seven 30 PM till nine PM,

Australian Eastern standard time,

Uh,

On the Monday to the Wednesday night.

So it's three sessions.

So you come,

You join us for the first one and then the next evening and then the next evening.

Okay.

There's three different knowledge sessions along with obviously learning to meditate,

Uh,

And gives you a chance to go away and practice on your own.

And then we come back,

We meet again over zoom.

Yeah.

And,

Um,

Cool.

Yeah.

So that would be five 30 AM East coast,

Which is like the best time to do these kinds of courses for people that have kids anyway.

Um,

Especially so you can be most engaged at that time and no one's bothering you.

Um,

So yeah,

That's cool.

That's awesome.

Um,

If anybody's interested,

I'll put the link in the show notes and so,

Uh,

Yeah,

Learning to meditate.

It is,

It's something that,

What is the,

What is like your opening?

I'm curious when you have,

Let's say zoom started,

The class started,

What is like your opening three sentence sentences besides,

You know,

Welcome to this,

This and this.

What do you say to these,

This class that starts?

Yeah,

There is one thing I say,

I said,

I'll say welcome.

Uh,

You're not just here to meditate and the real reason you're here is not to just learn how to meditate.

You've come here because you want to change your experience of life because this is what meditation does.

When we close our eyes,

We change our experience with our eyes open.

We change how we view ourselves.

We change how we view others as we shift and grow our consciousness.

Everything around you will change.

And that is the real reason I feel people arrive to a meditation teacher.

So that's my,

Uh,

My opening and people are like,

Whoa,

It's like,

Don't you want that?

Because I think everyone,

Most of us want to think,

You know what,

There's got to be more to this.

I don't want daily suffering anymore.

I don't,

I don't want to talk to myself in a bad way.

I have dreams.

Why can't I get there?

You know,

And meditation,

What it does first and foremost is release this stress and fatigue we've been holding onto for years,

Years and years to allow,

You know,

Our minds to function so well,

That wisdom and love can flow through,

You know,

To the top of our mind.

That's connecting,

You know,

To connect with others,

To connect with our work.

And you'll find,

You know,

People learn to meditate and then they'll be like,

I quit my job.

You know,

It's time to start my business or,

You know,

I'm finally doing,

I applied for a job I really want,

Or you know what,

Maybe a relationship.

It wasn't meant to be,

It dissolved because all of a sudden you saw you,

You weren't,

Um,

Going on that same path as the other person.

You weren't sharing that vision,

You know,

But you know,

It was done so in a,

In a conscious way.

There was actually a term for that conscious uncoupling,

But you know,

Maybe even friendships,

You'll find,

You know,

Only the people that will best support your growth and your evolution will be there for you.

And you'll notice others just fall away and you'll start to build this community around you.

And really when people come to learn with a teacher,

That's what's happening.

It is my firm belief that is what's happening.

That's so cool.

And it's,

It's really,

Yeah,

Not just a belief,

But it's the truth.

Everything you said is I'm like,

Oh,

That happened to me.

That happened to me.

That happened to me.

You know,

I'm just so you want,

You know,

I'm January 23rd,

2019 was the first day that I sat down and tried meditation.

And I didn't stop ever since.

So every day since,

Um,

Yeah,

I think I missed back in the beginning,

I might've missed a few days here and there,

But,

Um,

Yeah.

And then I decided to become a teacher and then share it.

And so that's how impactful it was personally.

And,

And yeah,

Everything you just said,

So I'm gonna be listening,

Like literally piece by piece,

What Natasha just said happened to me one by one.

Like it's not,

This is,

This is a completely it's and it's wild.

It's like,

Okay,

Just by sitting there and like,

Close your eyes.

Like sometimes I say it to myself when I'm explaining it,

I'm like,

I guess like this person might be thinking I'm kind of crazy.

Right.

Hey,

It works.

It works.

What can I say?

Yeah.

Your practice,

You have two.

So you do it twice.

And someone told me,

My teacher,

David G he's like,

Guys,

The,

The,

The hidden thing that nobody Oh,

I've listened to one of his meditations.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's,

He's,

He's a,

He was an amazing,

If you want to go,

If you want to take your meditation like deep in like with history and Sanskrit and my,

And mantras and learning like about everything real deep,

Real,

Real deep duality,

Nonduality,

You know,

Everything like that.

His class is amazing for that.

So and that's how I,

That's where I learned.

And he lost my train of thought there.

Cause what was I saying there?

What does it do?

So what with,

We were talking about what meditation does and how it has affected me.

Oh,

Two,

Twice a day.

That's right.

Twice a day.

So he said the secret,

The real secret,

Once you start getting used to it and you're comfortable,

Is doing one in the afternoon.

He likes the two.

That's what I teach.

Yeah.

So what I teach is,

You know,

I'm prescribing that you meditate once in the morning and once in the afternoon or evening.

And what are the afternoons one look like compared to the morning ones?

Same.

Same type of meditation?

Same.

Yep.

Same technique.

I teach them a mantra based meditation.

And so what this mantra is doing is,

Is essentially growing our awareness in our being.

It is a very easy technique.

It's very effortless.

Anyone can do it.

Doesn't matter if you've never meditated or you've,

You've done a lot of guided meditations.

The aim of this technique is first and foremost to remove stress and fatigue from the system.

And then second,

It starts to grow our awareness in our being.

It grows this,

You know,

This consciousness that we have.

And that is what allows us,

You know,

To have that flow of love and wisdom,

You know,

To be further generated because really what we want is greater connection,

Growth and belonging.

This is what we're looking for in life.

Yeah.

And this technique,

This is what it does.

So it's the same technique.

It is your,

What I call the bread and butter technique.

It's doing the hard scrubbing in there.

It's doing the hard work.

Anything else that you do,

You know,

Sometimes I sit down and I'll,

I'll listen to a guided meditation.

The difference is,

Is that a guided meditation is working on our thinking level of the mind.

It's not actually working to expand our consciousness.

So yes,

The result there and then will be good.

You will feel calm,

You will feel centered,

But in order to,

To grow,

Like,

You know,

We go to the gym or we train and,

You know,

We grow the strength of our muscles.

This is exactly what this technique I teach does.

It's growing this awareness in our being,

Which is why I say we,

We really,

We close our eyes in order to improve our eyes open experience,

To improve how we view life,

To improve how we view ourselves and others.

And like you said,

And it's happened to you though,

You know,

Things that don't serve that growth will fall away.

You'll start to see,

Just see a little more clearly.

That's why,

You know,

In,

In India,

You know,

You've probably heard of the Rishis or the seers,

The seers of all things.

They're,

They're seers.

They have the knowing and they're called that because they see.

Yeah.

And what you said in the beginning of that was you need to,

For just to reiterate,

You need to remove stress.

So in order to make space,

You guys,

For more love or abundance or whatever you want to bring in to your life,

You need to remove stuff first,

Right?

That you talked about,

Which was like so beautifully said.

And yes,

That's,

That's incredible.

So the twice a day,

That is,

That's something I didn't start until of course my teaching,

I didn't even realize that was like a thing or,

You know,

I wasn't really taught that it is,

You know,

It's hard,

It's very difficult for many people to even get in one in the morning,

Especially if they have young kids.

So I have to get up early,

You know,

And this is like the number one question I get from people is like,

I have young kids,

How am I going to do in the morning?

Do you just set your alarm earlier or do you naturally wake up earlier?

What do you do?

Oh,

No,

I have an alarm.

But yeah,

I'm up at either five or five 30 in the morning.

And you're at bed at what time?

Sorry,

What time do I go to bed?

Yeah,

What time do you go to bed?

Nine,

Nine 30pm.

What time do your kids get to,

Like kids go to bed?

Seven 30 on the dot.

Nice.

I look,

I don't know if I'm blessed with good sleepers or what,

But they,

We did very different things from when they were born,

But they have both from,

I might get more questions about this from the age of four and five months,

They,

They have slept through.

So slept through meaning seven 30pm till seven am.

All right,

We'll get you on another episode to be a sleep expert.

Like I said,

We did two very different things and they just did their own thing.

And I don't know,

It's just the energy in the house that my daughter,

I wasn't,

I wasn't a meditator when I had her,

I learned to meditate when she was six months old,

But with the second one,

Although it's funny,

He's the more crazy one,

So I don't know.

I was doing all the meditating with him,

But they,

They sleep and I don't know.

Yeah.

It's actually so funny listening to you.

Like it's my identity,

Like my daughter was,

You know,

Very,

Just the sweet loving,

You know,

Like very kind and not my,

My son isn't,

But you know,

And I had her first and then my son came out like a wrecking ball,

Like ready just to destroy things and he's still loving it kind of way.

He wants it.

It sounds like we have,

Yeah,

This very alike pair.

That is exactly what,

Yes.

He is destructive.

Yes.

He's going to make me triple up on my meditations.

I tell him all the time,

I'm like,

I got to do an extra hour for you today.

You know what?

We all have the same 24 hours.

And do you know what,

It depends how much you want to devote to yourself and to experience this growth as to whether you'll do it.

You know,

My teacher,

Johnny who I did my teacher training with,

He founded One Giant Mind.

You know,

He said,

I've taught,

I've taught mothers of seven,

Seven children and she,

She does her twice a day meditation.

You will find a way if you want this to really help you and you want to grow and you want to move past whatever it is,

You will make it where,

You know,

He said,

I've taught CEOs of corporations with hundreds of thousands of staff,

You know,

Big business people and they will still do it.

They prioritize this.

Prioritize that.

Especially as fathers,

You know,

And fathers,

You've got to think,

You know,

We are the children's world,

That we are their world.

So the way we care for ourselves and that way we vibrate and all that we do is absolutely affecting them.

Yeah.

I like how you said prioritize because you know,

If it really comes down to it,

If someone,

If you want to be really straightforward about it,

Like if you say,

I don't have time,

It just means that you're not prioritizing it.

You're not making it a priority because we can all figure out how to make time for it.

And if you can't talk to your significant other,

Hey,

How can I make time to get 10 minutes in the morning?

Yeah.

Yep.

I really need this.

I really want to try this.

How can I,

How can you help me or how can I help you?

How can I,

We get some,

How can I get five,

10 minutes this morning?

And then,

Yeah.

And like you said,

It affects everybody around us too,

Which is so cool.

You know,

The better,

The more we can be aligned with that.

You can have one person in a house,

You know,

Say it's,

You know,

The mom meditates and maybe even the dad doesn't,

Or dad meditates,

Mom doesn't.

And there are kids,

You know,

That one person,

If they're devoted to their practice can,

Can shift even that consciousness and,

And the energy of that home,

You know,

It'll make a massive difference to parents.

Incredible.

But even,

You know,

As a parent,

Like one of them,

I'm meditating every day.

It'll make a massive difference.

This is going to inspire me to be stronger with my second day.

I'm really glad you came on because I have fallen off my,

My,

My afternoon meditation the past 10 days,

I would say.

I've been either getting only a couple minutes or not getting it at all.

And that's,

This is a good reminder to,

To get back to that for sure.

For sure.

If anything,

This conversation brought that out,

So that's good.

Yeah,

Look,

Well,

That's it.

And you know,

This is it,

It's setting yourself up for success.

You know,

If you surround yourself with people who are,

You know,

If you're listening to this sort of information,

If you attend online talks or continue,

You know,

Going to group meditations with your teacher.

So,

You know,

With all of my students after they've learned,

I run regular group meditations,

Meaning we meet online at the moment,

Obviously,

We meditate and then I'll give some sort of wisdom or knowledge session.

And there's always,

So there's always that point,

You know,

People drop off.

I had a student who actually taught in March.

She was part of my last,

The last face-to-face course I ran before COVID.

And I hadn't seen her,

Hadn't heard from her since,

You know,

She did the course and she was very enthusiastic at the time,

But she came on last night.

I had my group meditation and she said,

Yeah,

I haven't really been doing it,

But I'm here.

I want to,

And this is the thing,

You know,

Some people come and learn and it's maybe not the time,

You know,

They thought it was a good idea,

They really weren't ready.

And so the habit doesn't stick.

But then,

You know,

Being,

Having a teacher that's constantly showing up for you,

You know,

That you can come back and go,

I'm just going to jump on that group meditation tonight.

I'm ready.

And you're re-inspired.

You know,

That,

That spark is like,

Oh,

I remember,

I remember why I learned,

I remember why,

You know,

I signed up for that course and did that course.

That's great.

How,

Is it a weekly call you do with your students?

Fortnightly.

Wait a minute.

This is a whole new term to Fortnightly.

Is that an English?

Every two weeks.

A Fortnight in,

In,

Okay,

Not Fortnite.

That's cool,

That's really,

Really right.

Two weeks is a fortnight in,

In,

That's an English term I'm assuming now.

Half my listeners are probably like,

Dude,

Do you not know that?

The other half are like,

I don't know what that is.

I've heard,

I had an Aussie friend teaching in the US,

She said something like,

Oh,

The footpath and people giggled the footpath.

What is that?

Oh,

The sidewalk.

Oh,

You know,

So it's amazing,

You know,

These little differences.

So every two weeks I run these group meditations online and you know,

Of course it's free.

This is something I just offer once you've done the course with me,

You know,

It's available and I usually I'll record them anyway so people can listen.

That's a great way to stay connected with your students.

I think that's a great,

Great way to stay connected.

I love that.

So if there was,

Actually I'm curious,

Was there any kind of event or trauma or something that turned you on to meditation?

I know earlier you said you like heard about it a lot,

Researched a lot and then just decided to start the app.

Was there anything that happened that made you really push forward with it?

This is no,

No,

Nothing big.

I think what happened for me is that I had so much knowledge about it,

You know,

In my work in health and wellness.

This is something I was surrounded with.

I even worked with another app that launched an Australian app called Smiling Mind.

So they have meditations for children from ages three and up and I was actually working with them on a marketing capacity.

So my background is health sciences in terms of study but then I worked in corporate marketing for some time before I then stepped away from that.

So I helped them with their social media and marketing and so I was surrounded by all these cool meditation app,

Okay,

Meditation month program,

Meditation.

Okay and I was trying things and I think for me I got to that point,

So much knowledge but I didn't have the experience.

I wanted,

I had the knowledge saying there's more.

Like I said to you earlier,

There's something more to my experience,

Just a life and I want that.

That was charming to me.

Nothing happened for me and this is the thing,

It's a really important point.

Nothing has to happen.

We don't have to come to a point of destruction in our lives to start meditating.

We don't want people to get to a point of destruction.

We don't want people to get to that point of disease.

That's the worst thing,

You know,

When it's illness and disease that goes,

Maybe I haven't been looking after myself.

What can I do now?

What can I do?

We don't want to get there.

And this is what meditation does.

It removes that dis-ease,

Because disease is two words,

Dis-ease.

You know that every day just feeling,

So anxiety is even,

It's dis-ease in the body.

You know the body wants to feel at ease.

It wants to feel calm.

It wants to be able to respond to the stress that comes.

But you know,

For the longer and longer we experience that stress and we have no way of removing it and then we ignore those little signs,

Maybe like that chronic fatigue or the constant colds and flus and all these things we can experience.

And we go,

Oh,

That's just me.

Oh,

That's just another cold.

And maybe our body gives us signs.

We don't want to get to that point where we're knocked down to go,

Oh,

I should learn how to meditate now.

And so that's why I thank you for asking because I share that story with others actually because I didn't have anything traumatic happen to me.

It's just that I know,

I knew,

I had that knowing there was more and I wanted that.

I mean,

Like I can tell completely that you give wisdom,

Talks on wisdom or share some things knowledge because I could listen to you just go and go and go because it is so like pure,

So authentic and you know,

Straight from the heart I can tell completely.

So I appreciate you sharing all of this,

Natasha.

I really do.

Do you,

If you could go back and tell your 18 year old self anything and she would listen,

What would you,

Would you tell her?

Hmm.

Well,

That's a good question.

So many things.

You know,

Heal your heart first and everything else will follow.

Trust that you are powerful beyond measure.

Listen to yourself more,

Listen to your heart.

I think,

You know,

For me at that age,

I just finished high school,

You know,

Went into university just doing it because that's what I thought my parents wanted me to do.

It was you went to university,

Got a good job.

You work a good job,

Your life,

You retire.

That's how I saw life and a lot of us do,

You know,

We do things to please others.

They just arrived at that.

Stop pleasing others.

You are the most important person in your life.

I had,

Yeah,

I had no idea at that age.

I love that.

All those are doing great statement.

Like that's,

That's awesome.

That's beautifully said.

Thank you.

And Natasha,

Thank you for bringing your heart,

Your wisdom and everything to this podcast today.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Thanks,

Justin.

Thanks for having me and connecting online and look forward to chatting more.

Thank you so much for listening.

Next week,

We have another amazing,

Mindfully impactful guest I know you're going to love.

Have an epic week and as always,

Give a stranger or two a smile to brighten their day.

The ripple effect it can create may be even more impactful than we even realize.

I love you and thank you for listening.

Reviews

Great thank you 🙏🏼 easy listening 🌿

Very informative and inspiring, thank you and Namaste