Hello, and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're

getting a little better at life. I'm your host, Cory mascara, and today we're

going to talk about fully experiencing your experience. Or to come on that

in a moment, first let settle in together with the sound of the bells.

So, one thing I vividly remember from my time on retreat, this has been

true for any retreat, but specifically in Burma, which was an extended retreat,

was that there was an ability to quickly and fully experience whatever was

moving through my mind and body. Thoughts, yes, but more specifically the physical

experiences, emotions, physical pains and sensations, and the early stages of

that retreat and the practice. So, a lot of it felt like it lingered, but as my

awareness and presence got sharper and more able to fully hold and envelop

experience, those experiences were more deeply experienced, and because of that

were more quickly integrated and released. Now you might think that you don't

feel or experience much in a monastery, but it's not true. There are still a

lot of little activating events and a lot of different emotional experiences

that come up that range from deep peace, joy, gratitude to deep sadness, despair,

loneliness, fear and grief. So, you really get a front receipt to the full

spectrum of the human experience when you're paying that close attention to

your experience. And if there was an experience that was lingering for a while,

a sense of stress, a sense of sadness, a sense of fear, I slowly learned that it

was because I wasn't fully connecting with it, experiencing it and making

contact with it. That actually feels key, making contact with it, touching the

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