Peace and Mind Episode 1: Present Thought

The host of the Peace and Find podcast discusses the importance of being present in our daily lives. She sets an intention to be open-minded and accepting. She recalls a walk in nature with a childhood friend and reflects on how busy life has become compared to their childhood. She emphasizes the need to slow down and appreciate the present moment. She suggests an exercise of focusing on one sense to ground oneself. She shares five things she is grateful for and encourages listeners to do the same. The main takeaway is to be more present and enjoy life. Hello and welcome to the Peace and Find podcast. My name is Laura Espinoza and I will be your host on this first of hopefully many podcasts. So what I have on my mind today is the importance of being present. I think this is something that is very overused in a lot of counseling sessions. We use it a lot, we talk about it a lot, but I think the reason why we do is because it is very important to consider in our daily lives. But the first thing I want to do and what I want to start every podcast is by first setting an intention. My intention today is to be more open-minded, to be able to be more receptive to other people's ideas, and just to be, I guess, more accepting, which is part of open-mindedness. So we're going to take a couple deep meditative breaths and then we will get started. Thank you. So today I was on a beautiful walk with my friend from childhood. We went to a cave and we were just kind of exploring and enjoying our time together. This is something that I enjoy doing. I love being in nature. I like smelling the fresh grass, hearing the birds, feeling the fresh air just against my skin. It's just very cathartic for me and I find so much peace in doing this. Something that we had started discussing as we were walking around and looking at nature was this idea that we are so rushed compared to how we were in our childhood. I very much thought this as well. I was talking to her about like when I was younger I don't remember having to be so busy with my grandparents. I don't remember my grandparents being that busy and she agreed. I feel like the advice I gave her and it to be present was not just for her but for myself. Sometimes we fail to take a moment and slow down to take a breath and appreciate the moment that we are in. With that I want to do a little exercise with you. I think it's something that is very beneficial. It's this idea that if we pick a certain amount of things to focus on then we can kind of ground ourselves. I like to do sight. Sight is very much more grounding for me than scent and hearing or taste or touch. You pick one that you like whether it be hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell. I'm going to choose sight. I see a gift in front of me which is for my child's birthday and it reminds me how grateful I am for her age. We're out of the baby stage and before the pre-adolescent stage so we're in a really good spot. I see a painting that I did that I really enjoyed. I actually painted it with my family and they painted too and I painted one. I see some mustard seeds which resemble the seeds that I place in people as a counselor that my job has a very big impact on people's lives and I'm very grateful to be able to do what I do. I see my diploma which was very hard for me and I worked hard for it and I appreciate it. Then I see my bag which talks about loving my neighbor whoever that neighbor may be. So those are the five things that I see that I'm really appreciative for. I've come a long way and I'm very thankful for that in my life. I hope that you write some of those thoughts down some things that you observed or just feel in your head and try to practice this maybe once again this week and see how it makes you feel. My takeaway today is just to be more present to enjoy your friends your family and your life as it is now. I thank you and I hope you found some peace in mind.