Hi, it's Andy here and welcome to Radio Headspace until Wednesday morning.

I don't know if you have a friend like this, a friend who you can talk to about just about

anything.

And it's a friend who won't necessarily judge you in any way.

They won't try and necessarily ask you to think in a particular way.

They won't try and force their opinion upon you.

And they won't try to fix the situation for you.

They will simply listen to you.

I have a friend like this who back in days when I was training in monasteries and doing

that sort of thing who became particularly important to me.

I felt it was very difficult to speak my mind honestly.

I felt like there was a level of expectation in being a monk that everything should

just be okay.

And of course, sometimes it's being a human being just because you're dressed differently

and living somewhere differently.

It doesn't mean that everything's okay.

And I remember speaking to him and the thing that I used to enjoy about speaking to

him was that there was always a sense of safety.

I always felt that I was being met where I was.

It wasn't like talking to someone else who had an opinion that they wanted me to subscribe

to.

He simply listened.

...