Hi there, it's Eve here. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Monday. It is so wonderful

to be back with you for another month of Radio Headspace. So a lot has happened in the past few

months and I'm not going to lie, my heart has felt pretty heavy. It's been quite hard at times to

process the ongoing onslaught of challenging news. Continued gun violence, legal decisions that are

impacting millions of people's reproductive rights and in many parts of the world there is a lot

of uncertainty economically. And the other day I woke up feeling pretty overwhelmed and helpless.

What could I possibly do to help people who were struggling and suffering? And I came across this

idea from Jack Cornfield who is a wonderful wise and inspiring meditation teacher. He talks about

only tending to the garden you can touch. I've found that when issues are happening outside of our

control and when it feels like we can't do anything about it, it can often leave you feeling

helpless and in some ways a feeling of well what's the point it won't help anyway can arise.

And it can be easy to forget that sometimes the biggest impact is in the areas that we can touch.

The community we live in, how we as individuals show up in the world and how we take care of ourselves.

And I like the garden analogy because with a garden you can talk about what you'd like to grow

and cultivate. We are the sole keepers of our gardens and we have a choice about what values,

ideas and virtues we want to grow and nurture. And I know this might feel passive but small acts

can make a big difference and the seeds we choose to plant can impact those around us.

For example giving your seat up for someone on the train or bringing a co-worker some coffee

can make a huge difference and help you feel better and then feel better.

And when a flower is tended to we know that it will spread its pollen and more seeds will be planted

and this helps to form new connections and more seeds of good can be shared out into the world.

This doesn't mean that we won't experience challenging thoughts or emotions.

...