So in life we all have, we tend to have hobbies, past times, creative endeavors, things that we love to do.

The Buddhist time, he called it a just sia which meant pleasurable activities, activities that don't have any negative

karma, they don't cause harm in and of themselves, drawing, being creative, writing, even non-creative pastones, gardening, that's creative.

That's creative.

Fixing your bike, I don't know.

Di of things like, you know, I don't want to genderize it either so I just call

guy things because I see these guys outside my house working on their motorcycles all day long,

but it's totally appropriate for women as well, and the reason they're so pleasant.

Neuroscience shows us that task positive things that use our hands

basically create what's known as a neural flow that keeps us connected with what's going on not only internally but externally and because we're so engaged.

We don't allow the mind to wander anywhere it wants and we don't fall victim to the kind of thinking that causes ruminating the kind of thoughts where we just go back to

conflict or speculative thinking such as what do other people think about

me or what's going to happen to me in the future, financial insecurity.

The Buddha talked about Popancha, which is obsessive thought, and basically he defined it as any kind of thinking where we merge speculation, the unknown with thoughts of self.

Sort of the miracle grows of obsession.

Just put a little bit of yourself and sprinkle a little of the unknown in there

and you can grow thoughts forever.

And that kind of what's known as default mode

processing creates stress.

It releases cortisol, releases lots of stressors in the body, the body gets tense because we're not present.

We're kind of in a guarded place because we're lost in thought. That's where the phrase comes from.

So our pleasant activities are Agis, the things we love to do. They're the things we turn to to stop the mind from obsessing,

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