Hi there! Before we start this episode, I just wanted to note that it was recorded before the pandemic started.

That's why you'll hear me talking about getting my daughter ready for the bus or running late to a meeting.

Remember when we still went to meetings in person? There are still plenty of good tips in this episode,

especially if you're dealing with big emotions, so okay, on to the episode.

This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Alice Naupery.

You know with our busy lives, it can feel like we're constantly living for the future.

What time do I need to leave for work? Can I get there on time? Or there's the bigger stuff, such as,

will I ever get that promotion or meet that goal? We have so many regrets about the past, worries about the future.

You think to yourself, why did I pick the fight or say that mean thing to my sister?

Why didn't I stand up for myself? We're in a trance of thinking, we're time traveling, we're in the future, we're in the past.

That's Tara Brock, she's a psychologist and a kind of superstar in the meditation world.

And she says often those distracting thoughts can be about bigger feelings. Like, am I doing a good job? Am I enough?

Tara says all this ruminating, it makes us miss out on the good stuff.

If we look at our lives, how many moments can you sense that in some way the fear of failing or the self-consciousness

or the feeling of being not good enough was in some way dampening or contracting or pulling you away from real intimacy,

or spontaneity, or enjoying a sunset?

So this episode, a conversation with Tara Brock about her latest book, Radical Compassion.

It outlines something called rain, a simple, useful mindfulness tool that can quiet those distracting thoughts that frankly aren't very useful.

And to be everything we most value, love, creativity, wisdom, compassion comes from being present.

So mindfulness gives us access to those qualities. We step out of the trans of thinking and we come into our full being.

What is mindfulness?

If you strip it down to the bare bones, can you describe mindfulness and obsentance or two?

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