Why does meditation work for some people and not others? Eight billion minds. You can only write the book from the altitude you are actually standing at.

My chair broke and I could not do anything. That is a lifeline gone, and a friend had to come and push me out to the van. In the weeks after I read a hundred and twenty year old book by James Allen saying you are not your thoughts. Sometimes I need to think something through and I will go into a story deliberately. Other times there are gaps between the words.

One thing to try: Stop asking whether you are doing it right. Ask what works at your altitude.

• (0:03) Eight billion minds, and why one method cannot fit them
• (2:35) You can only write from the altitude you are at
• (4:50) The chair breaking, and losing the lifeline
• (7:10) Reading James Allen, and you are not your thoughts
• (9:54) Going into a story deliberately, and the gaps between words

Suzanne, Maria, Michael, Tiffany, Ellen, Kathleen, Edyll, Nicola, Jess, Lynette, Linda, Laura and Yavuz.

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

Does meditation actually help in real life, off the cushion? That is the only place it counts. In the car, in the queue, and the second before you snap at somebody.

You cannot switch off a taste you dislike, so expecting to switch off a thought is the wrong ask. You choose which train to drive rather than stopping the trains. Little and often beats forty minutes on a Saturday. You do not need a lotus position, though a straight back helps. Three deep breaths connect the mind and the body and that is the way in.

One thing to try: Take three deep breaths before the next conversation you are dreading.

• (0:03) Myth busting, and why meditation matters off the cushion
• (2:50) Giving up on it, then snapping at somebody later
• (5:18) The real scenarios meditation is actually for
• (7:12) Thoughts that come and go, and the ones we go with
• (9:52) You cannot switch off a taste you do not like
• (12:02) Choosing to be the driver, and where the train goes
• (16:29) Little and often beats forty minutes once a week
• (21:27) No lotus position needed, but keep the back straight

Sin, Margaret, Annie, Melike, Helen, Laura, Adam, Dominique, and a special welcome to Linda.

The companion meditation: Peace Right Where You Are

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

Why is it so hard to say I am tired? Tiredness is not a weakness. It is your body telling you something honest, and ignoring it was never a strategy.

When I was Mayor of Truro there were days I had nothing left at all. I cannot feel anything from the chest down and I have autonomic dysreflexia, so my body signals things differently to yours. I took a couple of days and genuinely stopped. That beats soldiering on and taking three days over a one day job, every time.

One thing to try: Sit and ask one question. What do I need right now? Then actually act on the answer.

• (0:03) Mayor of Truro, and the days there was nothing left
• (1:52) Autonomic dysreflexia, and how my body tells me things
• (3:47) Why is it wrong to say you need time off?
• (5:07) Putting it on Facebook and hoping there is enough goodwill
• (6:55) Tiredness is not a weakness, it is honest information
• (8:33) What the waves in the brain turned out to be
• (10:21) Two days off, properly stopping, and the cabin idea
• (11:57) A one day job, done in one day, instead of three

The companion meditation: Permission to Rest: A meditation for time out

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

What rises when you finally stop pushing? Something usually does, and it is rarely the thing you were forcing.

Easter, and all this talk of new life can land as pressure when you are still in the ground. Not all trees bloom at the same time. Drive down any road and most daffodils are out and one on the end is only just arriving, and nobody thinks that one has failed. The tide does not come in cleanly either. It goes out, readjusts, comes back slightly further. There is a Scandinavian proverb that winter returns in spring seven times before summer, and that has been about right this year.

One thing to try: Stop pushing one thing for a week. Then notice what came up on its own while you were not looking.

• (3:01) Will we ever hear the birds again
• (4:06) Curiosity goes away, and it does come back
• (5:17) When you stop controlling, life has a way
• (6:26) The tide goes out, readjusts, comes back further
• (8:01) We are the rhythm, not the problem to be solved
• (9:17) Easter as pressure when you are still buried
• (10:36) Not all trees bloom at the same time
• (13:51) Winter returns in spring seven times before summer
• (15:35) The first thing that rises is always caring

The companion meditation: Find the Green Shoot: A Meditation for Quiet Renewal

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

Do you need to be a Buddhist to find inner peace? I am not one, and I do not think you need to be either.

I am recording this three days after an operation and on painkillers, so bear with me. I collected the statues and the pictures and the apps and books I never read. What I was after was for the calm to rub off. But the practices do not need the beliefs. Meditation, awareness, compassion for yourself and for others, sitting with what is rather than fighting it. None of that asks you to believe in reincarnation or karma. Jun Po taught me that all of it starts at one point, and that point is caring.

One thing to try: Take one practice, not one belief. Sit with what is for two minutes and leave the rest.

• (1:18) We are all Buddhas when you strip the layers back
• (2:34) The statues, the apps and the books I never read
• (4:23) It would help, and it would only take a few thousand years
• (6:37) Alan Watts, and the wisest people I know are not Buddhists
• (7:52) It points to a stillness under the noise
• (10:16) Reincarnation, karma, and what you do not have to believe
• (11:32) The core practices, and what they actually ask of you
• (14:10) Jun Po, and why it all starts at caring
• (15:05) There is no point where you are finished

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

Is this all there is? If that question keeps visiting you, it is not a fault. It might be the most important one you have asked.

I was young, flat on my back, with four TV channels I could see in a little mirror and nothing else to do but think. Two questions arrived and they have never fully left. Life looks fine from outside, so you feel guilty for asking, and you tell yourself you are being ungrateful. Carl Jung said the first half of life builds the ego and your place in the world, and the second half turns inward. The question did not lead me to despair. It turned into a window. When you think you know, the world shrinks.

One thing to try: Next time the question visits, do not answer it. Look at one thing as though you had never seen it before.

• (1:24) That question is not a sign something is wrong
• (2:30) Four channels, seen in a little mirror
• (4:19) I should have been having fun. I had these instead
• (5:32) Feeling guilty for even thinking it
• (7:38) Carl Jung on the two halves of a life
• (11:36) It stopped being a wall and became a window
• (13:11) The girl in the caravan, seeing it for the first time
• (13:45) Beginner's mind has many possibilities
• (18:55) Not just a wave. That wave
• (21:32) Reaching for depth, not for more stuff

Angie, Helen, Sujata, Suzanne, Lorna, Liz, Daphne, Sarah, Mikey and Jen, and the monthly ones, Joe, Audra, Sin, Jack, Glenn, Barb and Venetia

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

What if letting go is the wrong instruction? Every time somebody says it, your mind grips the thing tighter.

In 1992 I sat with a manual wheelchair I could barely move, triceps paralysed, hands paralysed, and I spent days trying to prove I was not disabled. The moment I accepted it, everything changed. Telling your body to forget something it built to protect you is a losing argument. It is quicksand. The more you struggle the deeper you go. So swap the word. Acceptance is not passive. It is the only thing that actually loosens the grip.

One thing to try: Find a quiet moment and say the true thing out loud. This is how it is. Then stop there.

• (1:40) 1992, and a chair I could not push
• (3:57) How determined I was not to be disabled
• (5:04) The version of me I was trying to live up to
• (7:53) Say let go, and the mind grips harder
• (9:05) You are telling the body to forget its own protection
• (10:16) Quicksand. The more you struggle, the deeper
• (12:41) The butterfly on an open hand
• (15:27) We are all in a wheelchair of some kind
• (19:08) Freedom is not letting go. Freedom is acceptance

Ruth, Nina and Ray, Skila, Cheryl, Krysia, Penny, Jenna and Mia, Angie, Sean and Stefan

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

Who are you when nobody needs anything from you? One day you are wanted everywhere, and then almost overnight you are not.

The role becomes the identity. The one who holds the family together, keeps the plates spinning, gets the three in the morning call. Then it stops. Redundancy, a divorce, the youngest leaving, the year ending. Everyone tells you that you should be grateful, and you are, and gratitude and grief sit side by side quite happily. You cannot pour from a cup that has been empty for years. You also deserve to know who you are outside what you give.

One thing to try: Ask yourself the question and answer it honestly. What would I do today if nobody needed anything from me?

• (2:54) One day you matter, then suddenly you do not
• (3:54) When the role ends, what is the role now
• (5:13) Three in the morning, and how it becomes your identity
• (6:32) Redundancy, divorce, the youngest leaving
• (7:46) Gratitude and grief sit side by side
• (9:02) You cannot pour from a cup empty for years
• (10:19) You are not your roles. You never were

Tiffany, Fran, Caroline, Ruth, Mazdak, Cara and Sujata

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

How do you stay calm through the strongest winds Cornwall has ever had? You watch the news enough to know what is happening, and then you stop watching it.

Officially we did not break a hundred, which I am glad about. I check in on the news every four and a half seconds because you never know what is coming next, and that is exactly the habit worth breaking. The world is noisy. My word this year is to simplify, and this podcast is part of that. We are not even in control of where the weight goes on.

One thing to try: Check the news once today and then leave it alone until tomorrow.

• (0:10) The strongest winds Cornwall has ever had
• (2:36) Ninety nine point seven, and glad we did not break a hundred
• (4:51) Sharing the word, as though I am some kind of wordsmith
• (7:11) Watch the news, but do not get into it too much
• (9:34) Checking on the news every four and a half seconds
• (11:47) The world is noisy, and my word this year is simplify
• (14:07) We are not even in control of where the weight goes

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

What would your one word for the year be? Forget resolutions. One word does more work than a list you will have abandoned by February.

Mine came out of simplifying. Take away what you do not need and it goes right down to the complicated things. If you love something you accept it rather than trying to change it. Embrace the anxiety, because it is the seven year old saying watch out, last time this was rubbish. My word is curiosity. Open, and asking what is happening now.

One thing to try: Pick your one word for the year. Just the one. Say it out loud and see if it holds.

• (0:01) Happy New Year, and what this one is about
• (2:37) Too much junk television, and it not shifting
• (4:52) Simplify. Take away what you do not need
• (7:14) If you love something, you accept it as it is
• (9:48) Embrace the anxiety. It is telling you something
• (11:41) Curiosity, and using it in sentences every day

Jessica, Laura, Katherine, Joan, Ulysses, Lisa and Audra.

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk