-Thank you so much for doing our show, "At Home Edition."
This will mean a lot to -- it means a lot to me,
but it will mean a lot to many people.
For those who don't know you,
you are the creator and main voice of Headspace,
my favorite meditation app.
Would you call it that? What would you call the app?
-Yeah, I mean, we -- it started --
it definitely started off like that, Jimmy.
I think over time it's evolved.
We think of it now as a platform for mindful living.
So it's not just about meditation,
it's how you can apply mindfulness, yes, to meditation,
but also to sleep, to movement, to eating,
and kind of every part of our life,
rather than just having these few minutes in the day,
and then the rest of our day.
Kind of how do we bring same quality of mind --
peace of mind -- into every moment of our day?
-I heard that two of the main things that have been
increasing during this pandemic
is the adoption of dogs and cats and pets,
and mindfulness and meditation.
-Yeah, we -- I mean, both are amazing.
I know more about the latter than the former.
[ Light laughter ] But we have seen --
Well, I do have a couple of kids that come close.
We've seen an increase in the use of the stress
and anxiety content in particular.
And the media stats around that, it's over 1,000% increase.
So a massive influx of people.
-Describe anxiety.
Because I know people sometimes misdiagnose it.
They don't know what they're doing.
They think they're having headache or they're --
And I go, "It might be anxiety attack."
But there is a lot of anxiety right now out there,
and I just think you're the best to talk about that.
-No, I think the first thing to acknowledge is that anxiety
is natural, it's normal,
it's part of our human experience.
And all of us experience it at some stage or another.
Some people are more likely to experience,
some people are more vulnerable to it, but we all experience it.
It's just really broad, kind of.
And so we might be someone who doesn't experience it
sort of too -- with too much intensity or too much frequency.
Or we might be someone who gets easily
kind of overwhelmed by it.
-What else can one do to curb anxiety?
-So, look, what happens with anxiety is
we tend to get sort of anxious in our mind
and then that drives a physical sensation.
And then our mind recognizes that physical sensation,
and says, "Oh, it's anxiety,"
and then we tend to get more anxious in our mind.
So it's really important that we learn
how to step out of that loop.
And one of the easiest ways to do that is through meditation.
-There's a -- there's a thing
called Take 10 that you were working on.
-Yeah, so we kicked that off today, actually.
So, so many members from around the world --
we have people in over 190 countries around the world.
-Wow! -And they were saying that one,
we want to come together on daily basis
and do something.
And two, we want to kind of hear, like, our views
on what's happening in the world
and to share the stories of other people.
So we decided that every day I'm going to drop in
with somebody different.
So on Instagram, we kick off tomorrow with John Legend.
There's going to be people who you know,
perhaps who you love, who you could never imagine
meditating with.
And there'll be people who you don't know.
It might be our local doctor from down the road
who's just doing amazing things.
Or a caregiver in the community
who has an incredible story to tell.
But every single day my promise is that whether it's 10 breaths
or 10 minutes, we will pause together as a community
around the world and hopefully bring
a little bit more peace to us all.
-Would you mind guiding me
in maybe a 10-breath meditation now,
or some type of meditation?
-It would be a pleasure, Jimmy.
And maybe I can even ask you, kind of,
if maybe next week, week after,
we can drop in and do a little meditation together?
With everything else --
-I would love -- Are you kidding me?
-We'll do it. We'll do it.
-This is awesome. All right.
I would love it.
-For those people who haven't done any before,
if you weren't with us last time
when we did this on the show,
doesn't matter whether you've done any meditation or not.
You don't need to know anything.
In fact, the less you know, the better.
All you need to do is to find a place to sit down or lie down.
I'm actually recommending at the moment
for a lot of people, because they're feeling so stressed
and so anxious, I'm actually recommending
that they do lie down.
You don't have to, but if you'd like to,
if you're sitting at home, feel free.
Just make yourself comfortable.
So -- -This is me comfortable.
-Great, that will work. That will work.
So we're going to start, Jimmy, in the usual way.
We're going to start with our eyes open.
Just like a soft focus, just taking in the space around you.
And we're just going to take three big, deep breaths,
breathing in through the nose...
...and out through the mouth. [ Exhaling ]
So as you breathe in, we're really focusing
on the lungs filling with air.
And as you breathe out,
just letting go of any tension in the body,
and just allowing the weight of the body to sink down
into the seat or the floor beneath you.
Okay, one more time, breathing in through the nose...
[ Inhaling ]
And this time as you breathe out, just gently
closing the eyes.
So as you pause,
just take a minute.
Most of us are so caught up in other stuff at the moment.
Just letting go of all of that,
and just enjoying that feeling
of having stopped, of having paused.
Of not being distracted by anything.
And just checking in, noticing how the body feels.
The more often we do this, the more easily
the body lets go of any tension.
And then just very slowly starting to notice
that feeling of breath.
So as the body breathes, it creates a natural
rising and falling sensation.
If you can't feel it, you can just gently place your hand
on your stomach.
And we're just going to stay with the breath for 10 breaths.
So for sure the mind is going to wander,
we're going to get distracted.
It doesn't matter.
As soon as we realize we're getting distracted,
we'll just come back to the breath again.
So just following that rising and falling sensation.
And seeing any distraction,
letting it go,
and coming back to the breath.
So just knowing that this is with us the whole time --
we can come back to this at any time in the day.
But actually taking time out like this
can make a big difference.
So just bringing any attention back to the body,
back to the space around you.
Might be the smell of your dinner burning,
your kids running around in the background,
your dog jumping all over you, whatever it is,
whatever situation you're in right now,
just slowly opening your eyes again.
-Uh, I feel fantastic.
And I -- as soon as we stopped,
I immediately thought of pizza.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-The Take 10, where can we find it again? On Instagram?
-You'll find Take 10 on Instagram.
And I've got to say, Jimmy, if -- anyone watching,
if you are a health care professional
or you know a health care professional,
Headspace is free for everybody in the nation
who is a health care professional
working in a public health setting.
Use it. Please tell your friends.
If you're an educator, if you're a teacher,
a caregiver, it is free for you to use.
Please tell your friends about it,
make sure they're using it.
And if you're neither of those,
if you're just somebody who wants to kind of try this out,
we have Weathering the Storm on there.
Again, it's free to use.
Mindfulness in meditation, in sleep, in movement,
it really does make a difference.
-We need that now. We need you now, right now.
Thank you so much for doing our show
and for giving this gift to everyone.
Hopefully it gives us a bit of calm in this storm right now.
-Thank you so much. -It's a pleasure, Jimmy.
Great to see you again. -Bye, bud.