– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

(soft music)

- All right so I guess I'm just supposed to sit down here,

legs crossed, palms up and clear my mind.

No thoughts. Stop thinking. Just focus on the breath.

- Whew. It's actually pretty easy.

I honestly don't understand

why people find meditation so difficult.

Wait am I thinking? Okay, that's right.

Focus on the breath in and out. I can get used to this.

Kinda peaceful, kinda calm, just focus on my,

I'm thinking again. Shit this is hard.

Meditation has gone mainstream.

It's no longer just reserved for mystics and hipsters

who wash their beard only once a year.

It's made its way into every corner of our society.

From the military, to the classroom, to the boardroom.

- Simply doing nothing.

- [Matt] Studies have shown

that meditation can improve focus,

sleep, heart health, reduce your blood pressure,

decrease stress, anxiety.

- And even make you nicer.

My wife is encouraging me to try it.

- A 2012 study found just 8% of Americans

have tried meditation at least once.

Compare that to 52% who have tried smoking weed.

And while the ladder is mind altering in its own way,

for most Americans finding weed can be much more difficult

than sitting still for 10 minutes.

So the big question we have to ask

knowing what most of us do about meditation,

why aren't more people not only trying it

but keeping it up consistently?

To answer that question, we could look at my own life.

If there's anyone that fits the description

of someone who would meditate, it's me.

I'm a self-help nerd, I've done it in the past,

I know it's good for me,

but I simply haven't kept up the habit.

The reason why is a little bit complicated

but if I'm being honest with myself,

I simply haven't made it a priority.

But I'd wonder what would happen

if I focused on meditating for 30 days.

Not only that how about an hour

every single day for 30 days.

Would the benefits be strong enough

for me to wanna stick through with it for the long run?

Let's find out.

Oh and by the way, I'm not doing this challenge alone.

Natalie is joining me in committing to doing

10 minutes of meditation a day.

Why did you decide to join me

on this 30 day meditation challenge?

- Because I like sharing things with you.

And I thought it would be a beneficial way

to bring more wellbeing practices into my everyday life.

And I have to try something new.

- Instead of doing it all in one big chunk,

I've decided to split up my meditations

at least for the beginning

into one 30 minute meditation in the morning,

and a 30 minute one at night. Even that was tough.

So I just finished my first meditation and it was brutal.

I was fidgeting a lot. I was adjusting myself.

I was stuck in thought,

I was trying to solve all these problems

of things that I have to do later today,

I was thinking about recording this video afterwards,

some of the things that I might say in the video,

just overthinking everything

and not just sitting still in the present moment.

So it felt a lot like a failure.

Although the fact that I sat down is a good first step.

Things didn't start out so well for Nat either.

This is a reoccurring character in my video is called life

and it has been known to punch people in the face.

On day one Nat came down with a really bad migraine

and was unable to get outta bed and unable to meditate.

Are you still feeling sick?

- Yeah I am.

- But Nat did get back on her feet

or at least the cushion for day two.

The methods of meditation will be using

over the next 30 days will vary,

but they all have their root

in a practice called mindfulness.

We'll be using Sam Harris's Waking Up app as our guide.

Mindfulness isn't so much a technique of meditation

as it is a quality of the mind itself.

It is simply undistracted attention.

It's the ability to notice the sights, and sounds,

and sensations and even thoughts

that are arising in consciousness in each moment

in a way that isn't cluttered or even mediated by concepts.

This isn't just about relaxing.

It's not even about stopping yourself from thinking

that might be impossible unless you're Natalie.

- Hey.

- [Matt] It's observing everything that arises,

seeing the inner workings of your mind

and noticing the patterns we fall into.

- You're seeing how crazy you are.

And that actually has a real value.

A systematic collision with the asshole in your head

has a real value because when the asshole offers you up

a shitty suggestion in the rest of your life

which is basically it's job,

like oh yeah you should eat the 17th cookie,

or say the thing that's gonna ruin

the next 48 hours of your marriage or whatever,

you're better able to resist it.

- [Matt] Day four for Nat.

- I like the course because it's actually like stretching.

I feel like this sounds douchy

but it feels like it's stretching my mind.

- Day five, that's five hours of meditating so far.

Just wasting my days.

- [Nat] I was gonna say, imagine all the videos

that you could have done in five hours.

- It was apparent from the very beginning

that having a course, an app,

something to follow along with is helpful

for even understanding why you're doing this to begin with

and having something to guide you along the way

as you think you're doing it completely wrong.

There are tons of popular apps for meditation.

I'm using Sam Harris's.

You might find similar success with Headspace,

10% Happier, or another app of your choice.

After a few days, I started to get more comfortable,

more settled into meditation,

I also started to realize how truly difficult it is to stay

in the present moment.

How often I get swept up in my own thoughts,

and how difficult it is to not judge myself for it

when I catch myself.

I also realized that

doing two 30 minute stints in and of itself

was also pretty ambitious

and it would be much more productive if I split it out

and spread it across my day from five, to 10,

to 15 minute meditations.

It wasn't until day 11

that I started to see some of the benefits

slip into the rest of my day.

I wrote in my journal one night,

"I can feel more productive,

more locked into conversation with Natalie,

more aware of every word she says and she says a lot.

My focus has grown even when it comes

to listening to audio books.

I can feel my mind start to drift

and I'll be able to catch myself much quicker,

and bring myself back to the audio book.

I'm realizing that my attention has always been scattered

and it has less to do with the messages around me,

and more to do with the messages I'm creating

in my own mind.

I'm sitting here writing this

after a short six minute meditation.

I'm staring out of the palm trees,

a cool breeze is hitting me,

a car who's muffler seems to be broken rattles past,

I can taste my whiskey in a way that I rarely do,

I can hold onto these things longer

and yet still let them go."

So there are two things that I really liked about

Sam Harris's guided meditation.

One is that oftentimes throughout the meditation,

he'll give pause and say

the moment you find yourself lost in thought,

bring yourself either back to your breath,

catch that thought that you were having,

listen to the sounds that are appearing.

And it was a great reminder to be present, to be aware,

because every time he did mention that,

I happen to be lost in thought.

And the other thing that he does is,

for the final 60 seconds, he'll often say,

in the final minute of this meditation, just begin again.

If you found yourself lost in thought

throughout this session, for the final 60 seconds,

start again, focus on the breath.

And it made me feel as even if the past nine, 15 minutes

were complete wash, or it felt like a waste,

if I ended the meditation with 60 seconds

where I was really mindful,

where I was aware of my surroundings and I was present,

I felt as if it wasn't a complete waste,

and I felt better about meditating in general.

Living in Los Angeles there are no shortage of distractions.

So I wondered if getting away for a few days

on a miniature retreat would help expedite the process.

So it's halfway through the month

and I'm packing my bags for the desert

for quiet and solitude.

And my friends that's how you pack as a minimalist.

Ah shit, I forgot about my film gear.

(soft music)

It's really quiet here. Like eerily quiet.

I feel like I'm making a lot of progress

but I wanted to come up here to experience solitude,

experience quiet and meditate in an environment

that was almost free of distractions.

I have a fly flying around here.

So there are some distractions.

(soft music)

This fly was definitely testing me on this meditation.

I almost, it kinda broke my process quite a bit.

I felt like it was the "Karate Kid,"

or "Kill Bill" or something.

- Man will catch fly with chopstick.

- I feel like no matter what, no matter where you are,

there are going to be potential distractions.

There's always something that will potentially

come into your awareness.

And really I guess the whole idea of meditation

is just to be aware of those things

and to observe just I didn't get it.

Stop judging me.

All right man this is great.

I'm like day 18 right now,

I'm already starting to think about ways

that I can implement this into my life past the 30 days.

I don't think it's gonna be an hour,

but I do wanna find a way to bring meditation into my life.

The benefits to me are pretty clear at this point.

You know what the one thing I'll say, is that during the day

the quietness, the solitude is really peaceful,

but at night the quiet turns to terror.

It's really creepy out here.

Like we're truly in the middle of nowhere.

Oh my God somebody's here. I don't know who that is.

What is this? Who is this?

Oh hey. - [Nat] Hey.

- It was Natalie and my sister.

They wanted to join me for a couple days.

- I always thought as meditation as like

just a really pure way to relax, it's kinda hard work.

I'm not sure I love it.

Decision made I don't like it.

- After a couple more days at the cabin,

and just as many hours of meditation, I felt recharged,

and ready to get back to reality.

But before we left, I had one job to finish.

(upbeat music)

- Bye. - See you.

- I can't believe you only brought a backpack.

- I'm not gonna lie,

I think I reached enlightenment on this trip.

- [Nat] I was born enlightened bitch.

(soft music)

- And as we got back and the final days of the month went by

we wrapped up our meditation challenge.

The big question you might have is

did Natalie eventually come around to

and experience the same benefits that I did?

- No. I get really bored.

I like it once in a while, not every single day.

So I like it as a time to get,

like as a way to get time out and to relax

when I've been really really busy and chaotic,

and just like just to take a breather.

- Well thank you so much for doing that with me.

And as for myself, I feel pretty good.

I feel yeah.

I think I feel more mindful, I feel more present,

I feel like it's something that

I definitely wanna bring into my life on a daily basis.

Definitely not for one hour.

There were some negative effects

of going this hard in the beginning.

It's kinda like running a marathon

before you've ever done a 5k.

My time wasn't that productive.

Although I didn't injure myself physically,

I did find myself mentally fatigued.

And I do believe that the difference

between zero and 10 minutes of meditating every day

is a far greater difference, than 10 minutes to 60.

So I'm gonna lower this down,

I'm gonna go 10 minutes every morning for the next 30 days

and see how that feels.

The process of letting go of stuff physically in our life,

the things in our life can be relatively easy.

Letting go of things that happened in our past,

negative relationships, negative thoughts,

is something that takes a lot more work

and a lot more practice.

And I found that meditation

is really one of the greatest ways to do that.

Thanks for watching.

If you like my videos, you might also enjoy my newsletter.

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Get it at mattdavello.com.

There's a link down in the description. Thanks for watching.

I'm really hungry.

- [Nat] Ugh, me too.

- [Matt] Wait did you hear what I'm saying?

- [Nat] Wait do you hear what I'm saying?

- [Matt] What the fuck.

- [Nat] Wait, what? - [Matt] Oh my God.

(upbeat music)

- This is my dancing.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
meditation /ˌmɛdɪˈteɪʃən/ B1	noun - the act of focusing one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation
focus /ˈfoʊkəs/ B1	verb - direct one's attention toward something noun - the center of interest or activity
breath /brɛθ/ A2	noun - the air taken into or expelled from the lungs
mind /maɪnd/ B1	noun - the faculty of consciousness and thought verb - be offended or concerned by; object to
thoughts /θɔːts/ A2	noun - an idea or mental notion
anxiety /æŋˈzaɪəti/ B2	noun - a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome
stress /strɛs/ B1	noun - a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances verb - give particular emphasis or importance to (something)
mindfulness /ˈmaɪndfəlnəs/ C1	noun - the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something
solitude /ˈsɑːlɪtuːd/ B2	noun - the state or situation of being alone
enlightenment /ɛnˈlaɪtənmənt/ C1	noun - the action of enlightening or the state of being enlightened
present /ˈprɛzənt/ A2	adjective - being in a particular place noun - the period of time now occurring
aware /əˈwɛər/ B1	adjective - having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact
drift /drɪft/ B2	verb - be carried slowly by a current of air or water noun - a general tendency or the main direction followed
judge /dʒʌdʒ/ B1	verb - form an opinion or conclusion about noun - a person who decides cases in a court of law
observe /əbˈzɜːrv/ B1	verb - watch carefully especially with attention to details
settle /ˈsɛtəl/ B1	verb - adopt a more steady or secure position, especially in a comfortable manner
productive /prəˈdʌktɪv/ B2	adjective - achieving or producing significant results