An ad comes on for a seasoning called Ajinomoto. And I hear my daughter say,

Aginomoto.

She doesn't get it exactly right,

but I see satisfaction on her little face.

She mouths the words, says them over and over again,

sometimes getting them wrong, not caring.

She's completely unselfconscious, completely free.

Our minds are capable of so much.

But frustratingly, they can also be the thing that stands between us and our own happiness.

In this week's episode, celebrated author and life coach Martha Beck tells the story of how she

learned to stop striving to be the smartest person in the room,

and during an eye-opening summer in Japan,

finally put her intellect aside to open herself up to everything else the world has to offer.

In this series, we combine immersive first-person stories, breathtaking music, and mindfulness prompts,

so that we may see our lives reflected back to us in other people's stories.

And that can lead to improvements in our own inner lives.

From Wait What, this is meditative story. I'm Rohan and I'll be your guide. The body relaxed. The body relaxed.

Your senses open your mind open meeting meeting

meeting the world I'm sitting cross-legged on the carpet of our living room.

A carpet so covered by grime, it's hard to know its original color.

My eyes dart from the mint green walls to a bright orange easy chair,

to the articles of clothing thrown around in random places.

...