Hi, my name is Andy and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Friday, the end of the week.

As we head in to the weekend, I thought it was worth reflecting on the idea of taking

ourselves a little less seriously.

In many ways it's a fundamental part of mindfulness, the journey of looking after the mind, taking

care of the mind.

For some reason there is an idea, very strong as well as idea, that looking after the

mind, training the mind, meditation, mindfulness or any of these things, somehow they're very

serious and in some ways they are of course because it's our own sort of mental health

that's at stake.

At the same time we don't have to approach it in such a serious, worthy way, I think there

is the opportunity to approach it with a sense of playfulness, of lightness.

And it's something that took me a long time actually to realise and to understand and

my hope is that in learning through my mistakes you don't take the same amount of time to realise

that.

For many of my early years in the monastery, I trained in a tradition that was very strict.

I had grown up as someone who, my way of coping in life generally, had been to sort of clown

around.

If there was discomfort at home, a lot of tension and arguments, kind of my parents I would

use jokes and humor as a way to diffuse the situation.

If I was at school, I think most of my school reports just said class clown, that was kind

of it.

The idea of laughter and humor was the really important thing for me and then I'd go on

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