Hi, I'm Andy and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Wednesday morning.

For today I wanted to transport you back to a former life of mine living in a particular

monastery which was so strict that at times I found myself without feeling of being able

to move. I actually felt quite stressed sometimes by just how rigid it was. Of course that was

caused by my own mind, not by the schedule but at the same time I think there is a balance

to be struck sometimes. And I think sometimes as we look at the day ahead we might feel

that it's particularly busy, particularly full but there is a difference in traveling through

that day, rushing and there's a difference in traveling through that day moving quickly.

Sometimes we have to move quickly in life.

Rushing I feel is more sort of a concept in the mind and I think we've talked a little

bit about this on Radio Headspace before but the implications of rushing are not always

good and I remember I was asked to cook lunches one week so we would have people come in.

For these people who come to the monastery and to the nunnery and they stay for a week.

And as the monks and the nuns we would do our best to not only continue with our practice

but to look after them as guests and to support them in their practice. And I was still quite

new at the monastery and so I didn't really know where everything was and how to do everything

I was still learning. One lunch time I went down and we would come straight from our practice

we'd go into the kitchen and there would just be, this is what you're making, this is

the recipe this is how you do it. And you know you just go about making it and I think

it was making it for probably about 20, 25 people something like that. Anyway it was

Malagatourni soup but I don't know if you know what Malagatourni soup is. It's got like

a curry soup but it's like a mild curry soup. I think it comes from India but it's quite

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