Hi, everyone. I'm very excited to bring Vidyamala Burchinto the Mindfulness.com family. Vidyamala is a mindfulness teacher, author, including the book, You Are Not Your Pain and the co-founder of Breathworks, which is an organization that has literally helped thousands of people in now over 35 countries to live peacefully with chronic pain, illness and stress of any kind and really just to cultivate a general sense of wellbeing and one's life. So Vidyamala, I'd love for you to give people a sneak peek inside your content. And firstly, if you could just share your personal journey about how this content has impacted your life.

Hmm. Well, first of all, it's really delightful to be here with you again, Cory. We met on a retreat some years ago. And I came to mindfulness through my own journey of living with chronic pain and disability. First of all, I injured my spine seriously 45 years ago, and I learned mindfulness and meditation 35 years ago.

And I've practiced very regularly ever since. And I can honestly say it has transformed my life beyond all recognition. It's meant, I've not only managed to live more peacefully with my pain and disability, but I'm also much more able to manage the normal stresses and strains of this crazy modern world with much more inner peace. And the essence I would say is training my mind to work with me rather than against me. That's the absolute core of what we're doing.

I used to fight against my situation and struggld, lots of anxiety, lots of fear, tons of physical tension. And now I'm much more accepting and I generally have a rich and meaningful life. And one of the things I've discovered, which I really was not expecting is that one of the fruits of mindfulness is becoming more lighthearted in the face of the inevitable ups and downs of life, much calmer and more peaceful, but also more joyful. And I hadn't expected that. And that's really wonderful.

Oh, beautiful. Yeah. I think what always inspired me about your journey is through so much hardship and difficulty, the first time I met you, there was just this radiance. It's the same radiance that comes across as you're speaking now and as everyone can sense. And so it's just this genuine embodiment of these teachings that is so clear and, and seemingly freeing.

So it's beautiful to see in here. And, you know, you've already kind of touched on this, but I'm curious for, for those listening, you know, why does this feel particularly important right now for people, all these teachings? Well, obviously, we are, we're during this interview in the middle of a global pandemic, that will pass. But nevertheless, it seems this modern world is very, very stressful for a lot of people. And we've got climate change upon us that we'll be bringing inevitable challenges. The planet is very, very crowded, so there's more and more people, scarcer resources.

Economic crises coming along regularly. So I think any of us could agree that the modern world can be a very challenging place. So if we can get our minds on site to help us navigate those challenges, then we can have a reasonably peaceful life in the midst of whatever arrives at our doorstep or arrives at our lap. So we can't control life, that's obvious. But we can control how we respond to life and we can either react or we can respond with something that's more creative, more open, more peaceful, even more joyful.

Hmm, beautiful. You keep dropping these, like I call them, tweetable nuggets. It's just like these one liners that I know everyone's going into their phone and kind of repost them. Wonderful. And you deliver these teachings in a number of different formats for the Mindfulness.com app.

The seven day course, the micro-practices, Q and A's. Why do you think these different formats are helpful? In what ways might they meet, may they be helpful to folks? Well, I'm obviously extremely passionate about the power of mindfulness to transform our lives. And mindfulness in itself is really very simple. I like to make that clear. It's awareness, so we know what's happening mentally, physically, emotionally, so we can choose how we respond to that.

But we've all got very different circumstances. So we've got micro-practices that are literally one or two minutes long. So if you're very, very busy, very, very stressed, and you think there's no way I've got time to do a seven-day course or a seven-step course, you can do the micro-practices. That can be your doorway in. Now, obviously like everything in life, the more you put in the more you'll get back.

So doing the seven-day course will be the most intensive and the most rewarding way into this material to cultivate inner peace. But it might be that the micro-practices is your doorway in. And then when you get the hang of it, you decide to do the course. And then the Q and A's, I think they're really important because we've done some sort of market research, as it were, and what are the main questions that people have around inner peace. So I'm answering questions, like how do I find in a piece when I have so much anger.

You know, that is such a great question. And I suggest you can find inner peace, even though you've got anger. How do I find inner peace if my body is in physical pain? How do I find inner peace with a very demanding schedule and a stressful life? I'm sure many people will relate to that. So I answer questions like that in the Q & A section. So we're, we're trying to make it very relevant to the people who are using the app.

Yeah. That's what it sounds like. And that market research, it really helped us see what are some of the key questions that so many people have. So there's just so much value here and I'm really grateful for you coming on the team and for sharing your wisdom and expertise. And for all of you who are listening, thanks for joining us.

You can now go ahead and dive into Vidyamala's course below, and we really look forward to hearing how it's impacting your life and will impact your life. Thanks so much. Enjoy and take care.