All it takes is 10 mindful minutes

The TED video I have chosen is called “All it takes is 10 mindful minutes”.  The speaker is Andy Puddicombe, who is from Great Britain. He is a former Buddhist monk and mindfulness expert. Puddicombe has also founded a social platform called Headspace that offers guided meditation sessions. The video was published in January 2013 and is nine minutes and 25 seconds long.

Summary:

This video is not about physical health, but mental health. Andy Puddicombe introduces us into the topic of meditation, but in a different way to what we expect. He says it just takes 10 minutes a day to change our view on life. In these 10 minutes you should try to think about nothing; not about the past nor the future, not about happiness nor anxieties. We spend a lot more time than that caring about our look or material possessions. Our mind, however, is the most powerful possession we have, so we should take care of that one too.

We can’t change every little thing that happens to us in life, but we can change the way that we experience it. 

Vocab work:

preventative, also preventive: intended to stop something you do not want to happen from happening, for example an illness

collocations:

preventive measure, preventive  action

to be inundated: to receive so much of something that you cannot easily deal with it all

context/usage in the video:

“You get stressed, you do some meditation. I hadn't really thought that it could be sort of preventative in nature, until I was about 20, when a number of things happened in my life in quite quick succession, really serious things which just flipped my life upside down and all of a sudden I was inundated with thoughts, inundated with difficult emotions that I didn't know how to cope with”.

to be agitated: to be so nervous or upset that you are unable to keep still or think calmly
commonly used:

to be in an agitated state, to grow agitated

context/usage in the video:

You might find a mind that's really restless the whole time. Don't be surprised if you feel a bit agitated in your body when you sit down to do nothing and your mind feels like that. 

Personal reaction:

When Andy Puddicombe first said that we should try to do nothing, to not even think about anything, I was like “Not thinking anything? That’s not even possible!” I have tried to do that several times before but somehow I never succeeded. Maybe I didn’t have the right motivation. I was just curious to see if you can really do something like that. Another point Puddicombe addressed that affected me in a certain way, was that we spend so little time in the present. In the moment we are living right now. We are always thinking about the past, regretting chances we didn’t take and moves we didn’t make. And if we’re – for once – not thinking about the past, we think about the future. I believe that this is totally true. Even now, as I am writing this post, I am thinking about the future. I am thinking of which grade I will receive, if I will pass the upcoming exam, if I will be proud of myself. Or disappointed. All these thoughts take over my mind and make it hard for me to concentrate on the truly important things. Friends, family, love. That is what makes me happy and therefore keeps me mentally healthy. If I ever happen to be in a hopeless situation though, I will remind myself of Andy Puddicombe’s words and sacrifice 10 minutes for mindful thinking.

Presentation technique:

Andy Puddicombe starts his presentation with a statement, followed by a question to the audience. I think this is a very good way to start a presentation because people start listening and thinking about what you say if they are addressed directly. Puddicombe also uses gestures to emphasize his words. He shares his own experiences with the audience to make this topic more interesting. Sometimes he also tells little jokes. Additionally, he gives examples to help the people understand what he wants to say and uses juggling balls to demonstrate his thoughts. It really fascinated me how he can talk and juggle simultaneously. On the whole, I really enjoyed watching his presentation and it inspired me to try out meditation.