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The simplified life that most of us have got to get used to has led to a rethink about what's important in our lives. It certainly has for me three spiritual advisers taking part. They offer insight into how we might live better. They'll be addressing problems from around the world that are universal. Dr. Shefali Sabari, she's a clinical psychologist from India who brings Eastern philosophies into her work. She's known for her book, Conscious Parenting.

Sister Dan Kim is Vietnamese. After fully qualifying as a medical doctor, she left that work to become a Buddhist nun.

And Eckhart Tolle, he's a well known thinker and author of books, including A New Earth Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.

Let's begin with Dave from England, who has asked Eckhart about anxiety. Dave and his partner. They're both prone to anxiety and that has been understandably heightened by the pandemic.

Dave wonders how they can support each other without adding to each other's problems.

That's a question that many people would be asking, especially at the present time. So if we look at anxiety, it might be helpful to see how it arises. The brain which you experience the world. Yes, you have three levels. On the one hand, you have the so-called external reality that consists of sense, perceptions. Of course, that's how you perceive the world. The external reality is inseparable from the present moment. Then you have another level.

You have the level of mind activity, thoughts that continuously arise in your mind. And these thoughts interpret whatever is happening on an external level. And these thoughts are also, well, very much concerned with past and future. In the case of anxiety, futur tends to be predominant. Then you have a third level, which is emotions of feelings, whatever you're feeling at this moment. So your entire life experience consists of a sense, perception's thoughts and feelings.

You know, it's very important as one becomes more conscious to realize the difference between whatever the reality is out there and the way in which your mind tells you stories about that reality. We could call it a narrative. As I'm sure you know, everybody has what I call the voice in the head, and that is your mind activity, thoughts that continuously arise. And so most people cannot differentiate or don't even know that it is possible to differentiate between what's happening in your external reality and the way in which the mind interprets or attaches a narrative to what's happening.

So if you take a very simple situation, let's say you're waiting for something, there's a long queue and it's not moving. This is a minor situation, but the mechanism is the same. You begin to feel irritated or you might begin to feel anxious. At that moment, it's very important to become aware of what it is that your mind is saying so that you don't confuse what is with the mental narrative about what it is you might be telling yourself.

This is it's a terrible situation. One, why can't they hurry up? This is an awful and the one negative thought leads to another and another and another. And then you have a train of negative thoughts. And the most important thing in your mind, one could say spiritual evolution. The evolution of consciousness is to become acutely aware of the kind of thoughts that your mind is producing so that you don't confuse external reality and the narrative to make it more clear.

Let's take a very, very simple example. In the morning, you get up, you open your curtains and it's raining and it's gray. Now, your mind might be saying, oh, no, not another dreadful gray day if you begin with. One negative thought, it very quickly leads to an associated negative thought, for example, how dreary your life is and that leads to another and another and another without you knowing it. But if you can catch the first thought that arises, what a dreadful day, another rainy day when the mind sets that you experience a corresponding emotion.

A lot of emotion that you experience is created by unconscious mind activity, thought processes. So it's not so much that the situation creates the emotion. It could be fear, it could be sadness, whatever it may be in most cases. And this is a great secret. What makes you unhappy in most cases is not the situation, but the story you're telling yourself about the situation and then the story creates the emotion. So let's go back to the example I gave you.

Open the curtains and say not another dreadful day. And immediately you don't feel good about it, of course, but do you not feel good because it's raining and the sky is gray? Or do you not feel good because you have a narrative in your mind that judges this moment as bad and then you have an emotion that that reflects that thought? Yeah, what we are talking about is developing the ability to become aware of what your mind is saying instead of because you might be asking what?

Isn't everybody aware of what your mind is saying? Not really, because most people are completely identified with each arising thought. So there's no space between you and the thought. One could almost say you become the thought. So if you have a thought about future, what might happen to you in the future or what might happen to you and your partner in the future? Often the mind creates scenarios about the future that are very unpleasant. But that's not the reality of this moment.

So the question first question is when you feel anxious, become aware of what kind of stories you are telling yourself in your mind. It's an incredibly important step to access what we may even call a higher level of consciousness. And this higher level of consciousness is we could call it awareness when anxiety arises, be very alert and say, is this arising because of what's actually happening here and now the external reality, or is it arising because of something that my mind is telling me?

And that's a big difference. And then you can separate the two here. On the one hand, you have the present moment, which is your life is always now is very easy to overlook that fact and most people do. So when you get anxious, you forget the fact that life is always now and the present moment is primary. And in the present moment, this moment, there's actually and this sounds a little surprising at first, there is actually nothing to be anxious about in this moment.

But when do you think about the next moment that you might become anxious? So return your attention as much as possible to the present moment, which is all there ever is the most powerful way of getting beyond being burdened by continuous negative thinking and the emotion of anxiety is as much as possible. Bring your attention to the present moment. The parent mom is actually very calm and very peaceful most of the time, unless there's an emergency you have to deal with.

But it happens relatively rarely. But your mind doesn't actually like that. It has a certain momentum to its movement. It wants to continue creating difficult narratives. That's what it's used to. The most important step to begin to become free of anxiety is to become aware of your thoughts when you discover a thought that makes you feel anxious, identified as such, and say, Oh, there he is, another anxious thought, and then come into the present moment.

Now, how do you come into the present moment by being more aware of your sense perceptions, looking around. Listen. In breathing, when you become aware that you're breathing here and now, at this moment, you're breathing and you're not breathing yet, you know that you're breathing, you're becoming aware of your breath. It's one of the most ancient meditation methods. Now, why is that so important? Because it takes attention away from continuous, useless and destructive thinking.

Because you cannot you may discover you cannot be aware of your breathing and think a lot at the same time. So then you have a choice. Do I want to be anxious now and believe in every thought that comes into my head and then feel the emotions that are reflections of those thoughts? Or would I prefer to be present in this moment and experience the vitality and the beauty of the present moment which you access through the sense, perceptions and your breath is part of part of the feeling of being alive.

Many people have lost that because they list exclusively in their heads. In their mind, it's like inhabiting a house, but you only live in the loft under the roof. Now, if you take attention to your breathing, that also puts you in touch with this feeling of aliveness in your body. This is a very powerful weapon because you have been suffering from anxiety and your partner wife also, because what I'm telling you is something that you should share with your partner so that you can do it together.

I think just as you've been talking, what you're saying resonates with me quite a lot because and as you say, I think I was thinking about kind of compartmentalised in those moments. And I fully appreciate and understand that that's something that I need to do. And I think that's going to that will be really useful to me. People have always said to me, you're someone that over things because I'll verbalize when I when I'm talking about a scenario which which I'm in with other people.

When I say I felt this emotion or I think this might happen and people say to me, how can you even think about that? That can't even be a possibility now. But my brain has taken that and ran with the idea. In the end, it just puts me under more pressure than I need to be under. So what you're saying and some of those techniques is going to be extremely valuable.

So I wish you well. I believe you can do it. You have a good incentive for doing it because otherwise your life becomes unbearable.

Absolutely. The secondary part of this, I want to understand how I can not project my own anxiety onto my part of it. Be supportive of of her anxiety as well, because we get we are made to feel anxious by different things.

One thing you can do is talk to her about what we've just been discussing here, the various practices. And a very important thing is your state of consciousness when you are together so that you are not drawn into her anxiety. So it's important to talk to her about the possibility of using these practices and doing it together. Like to breathe, spend five minutes, several times a day when you do that breathing practice, gentle breathing, becoming aware of your breath and when do you feel anxiety arising in her?

And she can do the same to you. If if it happens to you and you feel she is being completely taken over by anxiety, gently point out the possibility of coming into the present moment and realizing that the anxiety does not concern anything real. It's not. Nothing is happening now. And together, do some breathing exercises. A simple question. Can you feel your hands? Sometimes that sounds a little strange. You can ask her if you close your eyes and hold your hands up.

How can you know whether your hands are still alive or whether they are still there? Are your hands still there? If you don't look at them and not don't move your hands. How can you know whether your hands are still there? That question forces you or the other person to put attention, conscious attention into the hands. And after a little while, you can feel almost a tingling or warmth in your hands.

Some people are so identified with their anxiety they don't even want to become free because they have become it. That's a dangerous thing, but I believe. If your wife watched, especially with you, there will still be willing to go beyond the anxiety so that she doesn't spend the rest of her life in that state of agony. The main purpose of your life together is to reach this more pleasant, ultimately higher state of consciousness so that you don't spend the rest of your life in that state of suffering.

So make that perhaps almost the main purpose of your life, to live more consciously and as much as possible free of unnecessary suffering. What better life purpose could there be? We are here to evolve out of our unconscious patterns. We evolve into more conscious beings. But the suffering of the anxiety is actually ultimately helpful because it provides the incentive for evolution. People don't evolve when they're in their comfort zone. Humans evolve when they're out of their comfort zone.

But then they are forced to evolve some very specific actions for Dave to share with his partner there. And maybe you find them useful, too. I found it intriguing to think about the stories we tell ourselves that can amplify anxiety. And I love that line about evolving through our hardships somehow.

It's an encouraging thought. Sudip, he's from Rajastan and he has an interesting issue.

He feels guilty for enjoying lockdown. He spent valuable time with his wife and his two year old son, seeing his relationships with all his family improve enormously and his work anxieties have decreased.

Sister Dying finds it quite funny that he's worried about how he's finding joy during the pandemic.

My question to you would be a twofold question. Is it morally or get to feel good during a pandemic? Because I've been hearing some very negative inputs from the media, from everywhere that people are struggling and that and I was thinking, I'm not feeling like this. I'm enjoying this is how do I make sure that I remember this phase or this life lessons throughout. And I continue to evolve and grow as a human being even after this pandemic, hopefully.

And I'm very happy to hear that you experience a deepening of your relationship with your child, with your wife, with your parents.

Sounds like you feel guilty for feeling that. Yes. But it is truly, truly a blessing, you know, and the teaching of the Buddha, many people say, oh, the Buddha only teaches about suffering, but it is not at all true because, for example, in the four noble truths, the third noble truth is there's a way out of suffering. You see, and a fourth noble truth is about all the practices that can help us to transform suffering.

So when as you transform anxiety, sadness, despair, anger, you experience a relief, right? You experience joy and happiness. It's like you are a gardener. You don't just toil all day long.

You don't just plow the earth, you know, plant seeds, take care.

You also sit down under the shade of a tree and enjoy enjoying the fruit of the tree, enjoying the flowers that are blooming around you. Right.

So Joy, experiencing joy nourishes our body and mind and it gives us more strength.

And the Buddha actually taught four different ways to cultivate joy and happiness. The first one is the practice of letting go. And this sounds like it. Like you say that doing this pandemic, you don't have to get so busy with work, right?

Yes. And so in that way, you have more space and time to be with your family. The second practice of generating joy and happiness is about mindfulness. Mindfulness brings us joy and happiness. So can you share some of the things that you are aware of, the conditions of happiness that you have in your life that brings you happiness?

Happiness is seeing my loved ones smile. The first thing that strikes my mind is similar because that is of many stresses of you.

Wonderful. So it sounds like you are quite aware of the conditions of happiness that are right now and right here present in your life. Right. And that's important because if we set a goal ahead of us, but we are neglecting of what we are having, then we cannot be happy. The thought practice of cultivating joy and happiness is through concentration in our daily life. Our mind can be so dispersed.

I have a very restless to make my focus shifts very quickly from one thing to the other. This has been a problem with me.

So when we simplify our lives and activities, the spending minimize going on the internet of these things helps calm down. My concentration comes from relaxation of the body and mind, listening to stimuli, to your mind, to your daily life.

So now I would like to approach the second part of your question, which is, is how do you keep the lessons alive? Many people say I cannot wait for the pandemic to be over so that I can go back to normal. And what I'm begging, insisting is that we do not go back to normal. We have to go forward.

We have to move forward. This year we have gone through has been so eventful. Many people really, really suffer. But many of our practitioners and now with you, we've been able to be stable, peaceful and happy because we have a spiritual dimension in our life. We have something to come back to our breath, to our body, our family, for support, for love, for guidance. You see, please continue to get to know more about yourself and to deepen your relationship with your child, with your family members, because you see that how it nourishes you and it nourishes them.

It brings you more joy and happiness than the salary that you make it right.

Yeah.

So first and foremost, keep this spiritual life alive, cultivate deeper.

Continue to deepen your relationship with others with yourself.

Thank you so deeply and thank you Sister. Dang, I was really struck by sister dying, imploring us not to go back to normal but to go forward.

Maybe we can't go back to whatever normal was after the past year, even if we wanted to.

But I did find myself asking what does going forward look like?

What positive aspects from this simplified life can I now incorporate into my future? Here, we must take a pause. Sister Dang will be back in the second half and we'll also hear from Dr. Shefali Sabari on a question from Costa Rica about how to cope with kids and screens.

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Let's return to the documentary.

Hello, I'm Nula Magavern and this is the BBC World Service. You're listening to a world of wisdom exploring life lessons on some of the issues people face during the pandemic. Dr. Cheverly Sabari is a clinical psychologist. She comes from India and incorporates elements of Eastern philosophies into her work.

She's known for her work on parenting. And Paola from Costa Rica has come to her with a question about her twins. The twins have spent much of the last year on their screens because of the pandemic. They missed their 15th birthday celebrations because of covid-19 and the 15th birthday. It's a very big event.

In her part of the world, Paola feels the screens are replacing natural sociability for their age group and that the pandemic has made things worse. She longs for them to go to concerts and parties, experience what she calls the romance of life in the way that she did. But is she right to have that longing? She asks Dr. Shravani.

Oh, I love your question. We all have longings when we come into the parenting process. We all have an idea, a vision of how it's going to be. And part of that is based on how we were brought up. So it sounds like you were raised in a different way and you're bringing that longing into your current parenting situation. Is that fair to say? Yes.

I think that, for example, I used to have like random encounters with people like, you know, you go to a party or a concert and you see somebody and you're like, you know, I like the way they look. I like the way they talk is just this person that I was not meant to meet, but we just happened to be in that place. He doesn't have to be in a romantic way, can be like a girlfriend or a boyfriend.

And I feel that now with everything so organized and being in the bubble and, you know, trying to be away from people, they're going to miss that and worried about that human connection.

Well, I think you are absolutely right that the current generation has a different kind of human connection. I think many of us from our generation and past are in a kind of trauma and a shock. That human connection is now what it is. It's virtual, it's through screens, it's through video games, and we are not used to it. So what we are longing for or what we are used to is not occurring right now. And it's causing a generational clash.

It's causing a lot of stress within us parents and it's creating what you call a longing. So your question was, is this longing OK to have? So, you know, the question to really ask is what is the purpose of this longing? Right. So one part of the purpose is that it's going to motivate and inspire you to make sure that you fill in the gaps where you feel they can have more human connections. So you're going to be more present.

You're going to be more available. So at least at home, you're not lost in the screen. So your kids have your human connection. All parents have this idea of what their child's childhood should look like. And that idea comes from our own childhood. So you said, you know, you remember having an unstructured childhood where there was more human connection. So you want the same for your children. This is very normal. But my question back to you is, when you have that longing, does it bring you joy right now or does it give you anxiety and stress?

It gives me a little of like hopelessness because I see that it's not going to go back to what I wanted or what I had in mind for them. You know, I would love for them to go to these places and meet new people the way I did. But I'm afraid that they're going to always have like a screen in the middle, like a device in the middle. And that that change forever comes. But what I want to show you is that right now, your longing is for this one element that you don't want the screens you want for human connection.

But I'm going to take it to an even bigger place because how about tomorrow if, say, they get married and then their marriage turns out to be different from your longing, or what if they have grandchildren, you have grandchildren and the grandchildren are different from your longing. So what I want to show you is a common theme that we parents bring into our parenting that causes, to use your word, hopelessness. And the problem is not in our children's lives.

The problem comes from our longing when we have a longing and we've decided life is better this way. And then when it doesn't turn out that way, we project our own feelings onto the reality and we make ourselves feel upset. And then we make our children feel as if their life is not good enough. For example, you talked about the 15 year old birthday, right? It's a tradition in your culture now. It did not come true. And that led you to feel longing and upset and anxiety and hopelessness.

But guess what? That was something that was very unique to your culture. And you put it on your children's lives. And then when there was lack and scarcity, you felt upset. But when you bring it up to me, because it's not part of my culture, I don't see anything wrong with not having a fabulous 15 year old. But there you see what I mean. We we create our own stress by having a vision and we get attached to that vision.

And then when it doesn't come out to be true, we create lack in our own perception and in our children's perception. So the real question to ask is how can I as a parent, align with what is going on in the present moment and introduce what I think is best, but not to be attached to the way things were? You are living in the past and wanting your past to be in the present.

Yeah, yeah, I understand, because I was thinking also about the grandparents when they would tell you, oh, we used to go to dances and the people playing the instruments and they were like, your parties are so awful because now you have a deejay. But for us it was wonderful. So I understand like from hearing you that probably I have to cut that, you know, like be happy for what they have and what they get. That's what I'm understanding, correct?

Yes, correct.

When we get attached to how things should be, we actually create our own madness because it reality will never be what it used to be. It's always changing in the present moment. And we project lock onto our children when actually they may be OK. We want our children to be vessels of our unmet expectations or our expectations from the past. And we don't realize our children are here to enact their own destiny in the culture that they are born in. So thank you for sharing your story.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. Very interesting. I feel different just right now, just like a switch that changes from here to here. Thank you so much, Doctor. Thank you so much.

We have a satisfied customer in Paola, thanks to Dr. Shefali. I think that the acceptance of a rapidly changing world, that can be a real challenge to most of us, particularly that human connection can be attained in a totally different way to what we're used to and to be able to let go of the past and not dwell on the way that we did things that requires conscious effort for most people.

It seems now being aware of our thought process, that appears to be a very productive first step. And it is really good to see that Dr. Shefali helping Paola to feel better about that.

Now we have Sister Dan, GM and Teutul in Zambia. Sister Dan was a doctor for many years before becoming a Buddhist nun, and she's written a book called Mindfulness as Medicine, which offers support to people suffering through illness.

So as it happens, she is the perfect person to help Chatel, a farmer in Zambia who's struggling to recover from a life threatening illness during the pandemic.

I'm recovering from a severe case of malaria, and I can close to death less than a month ago. And despite being discharged from hospital and started to make my recovery, I remain depressed and stressed out from my own terrible experience and very sad about the dangers of. Death from coronavirus. How should I deal with the stress and depression caused by the sickness and also cope with the fear that I may be more vulnerable to norovirus?

No, thank you. Thank you for your question. Wow. You have gone through such a severe, deep experience and yet you keep your smile so bright. So first and foremost, keep smiling, my dear. That's a great gift. Sometimes people ask me, this city, are you very happy? Why do you smile so often? Because like you, I like to smile a lot. And I answer. I said, Well, I smile because I'm happy some of the time, but most of the time I smile to my own thoughts and my own thoughts can be negative, can be depressing, can be full of fear.

And I have learned to smile to those thoughts and feelings that arise in me. So after your experience of hospitalization, you come home now. And you're still experience sadness, fear and depression because you had, like a near-death experience, smile through those feelings, those thoughts that arise in you, smile to them, smile to them with compassion, with tenderness, say hello, sadness and fear. I'm here for you breathing in. I say hello.

And know my thoughts, my feelings, my personal feelings, reading out, I relax my thoughts and feelings, I smile to them with them. You see whatever that arises in us, if we can breathe and smile and relax, we touch non fear. You also practice to come back to your body right now, are you able to sit upright?

Yes, yes, yes, sit upright right now. Are you able to stand and walk?

And impending, difficult sometimes to work, I love Skynyrd's is how I struggle a lot, I really struggle a lot like yesterday I with my feet as if they're burning.

I think, you know, I think I walk. I feel my hajee feet. And it's a struggle, and what you can help your body is when they would let you sit like this, you sit ups, they believe you come back to your breath as these. And you mentally scan through your body, for example, as you breathe in. Breathing in, I'm aware of my forehead breathing and I relaxed my floor. You practiced like that again.

If something sounds on your forehead, there are some thoughts in your mind. You relax and smile to them. Just let them talk. OK, ok. And I was going slowly down your face, breathing in. I'm aware that I still have my all my feet are still there.

Strong, healthy, white, healthy udar smile for every day out.

I enjoy my bright smile then your skin slowly down to your shoulders, to your arms, aware that you still have your body intact. Yeah. Your arms are intact and you say thank you. Thank you. And where you meet. In your body that there's difficulty, for example, your swollen legs and painful legs, then you can practice breathing in. I am aware of my legs. But now, when I send love and gratitude to my ex.

For so many years, we use our legs day in, day out, right, and a lot of time we don't pay attention to them, we just use them. But now when you have pain, you are aware that your legs are doing their best to heal. Your whole body is doing its best to heal. In our practice of mindfulness, we learn to be aware of what we have, what we still have, and we send love and gratitude to those parts of our body that are healthy and are struggling.

And when you do that, you give your body more energy, more time and more space to heal. Does it make sense? Yes. It's very important to remain positive in our way of thinking, and as you practice awareness of your body in your own body, you also recognize that, wow, even though I'm still healthy and young, but an illness can take over and it can be quite severe. It can be quite debilitating. So what you touch is the wisdom of impermanence.

Impermanence, it means one moment the good things can be here, but the next moment they may change, they may be gone, right. Then we learn to cherish more what we do have. It sounds like when you have the hospitalization, you look at it as a terrible experience, right? Yeah.

And it's worse. And that is wonderful.

Now, when you recall it is still it's still terrible to you and still kids in there and it still creates stress and tension and fear in you.

So now you can choose to make the experience that you have now to be a more positive one. OK, Ciccolo making it a positive experience now so that when you recall it in the future, you look at it as something positive and at night, Twyning, instead of it as being terrible, OK, and that can happen because you learn to be aware what you still have to be grateful. You also recognize that even though your body got very sick, your body also has a great capacity to heal.

Right. You were hospitalized. You had a near-death experience, and yet now you are sitting here speaking clearly, smiling brightly.

Your mind is sharp is. Yeah, right. Yeah. In that way you see how how wonderful that is, the capacity of healing that you have. You have a great capacity to heal. Thank you. And so that helps you to have more trust in yourself to know that on the one hand everything is in Parliament and on the other hand we can experience impermanence in a positive way because all of us, Gitano, all of us experience sickness, old age and death.

Every cell in our body, they experience death, they experience regeneration. You see, every moment the whole body is changing. That's impermanence. That's there no one to mourn death. And so in our life, we can learn to be aware, to be more aware of that impermanence that took place. You can see it in nature and the healthy tree. You still see leaves that are dying. We are changing every single moment. And in that way we become familiar with impermanence, with death.

But my body is also programmed to get sick and to die so that life may continue. You see. If you practice that in your daily life to live as beautifully. As you can, and to die as beautifully as you can every moment with awareness and with compassion, then you will not be afraid of sickness and death when you walk to try to pay attention to your steps. Now is painful to walk, but also give rise to joy that you are able to walk as you walk mindfully, you are also aware of the contact of your feet on the earth with the earth, and you also send love to Mother Earth.

Thank you, mother us for being there for me my whole life, nurturing me, giving me protection. And one day we are also aware that one day when we lie down, we breathe in, we breathe out and we don't breathe in again. Mother Earth will take us back. Mother Earth will help us to transform and manifest in a different way. You see, when you can touch that love, that acceptance, unconditional acceptance. Then you will also catch non fear, the fear of death will slowly be transformed because you know that you have a home wherever you go, wherever you are, you are in the womb of Mother Earth.

You can say that to yourself. Also, I have arrived. I am home. Have arrived home. Yes. Yes. You are home in every moment. And that helps you to live more deeply in your life, that helps to strengthen your immune system, strengthen your body. We can smile the smile of noncareer with whatever that is rising in us, if you can breathe and smile to that and that in itself is healing and I trust you can do that, Ciccolo, because I see your bright face and your bright smile and in your capacity to heal.

Thus far, I trust the nature of godliness in you, the nature of Buddhahood in you. I touch that very deeply and you need to touch it deeply, too. OK.

Huh. OK, now share with me a little bit. Are you able to practice? You think you can practice walking meditation more in your daily life or coming back to your breath and to enter your body more yet.

Yes. It's so early in the morning I woke up. I don't take a walk and when I walk, I go to the hillside. Yeah, yeah. At the time you're here at the time. And then I'll reach the end of the tarmac and then I look, I look to the air, I look to the environment and I will take a deep breath. Yes, yes. I take about five deep breaths and then I'll feel OK.

Yes. And Mother Earth heals you. You're positive thinking helps you and your body. HUZE And every moment and I tell you another secret, Gitano, I tell myself, I love you. I love you many times a day. Can you do that for yourself, also, Ciccolo, tell yourself I love you. I appreciate you so much.

Thank you. Can you do that for yourself also to tell tell yourself I love you. I love you. I appreciate you so much. And you can scan through your body and say that to every single part of your body. I know that you are there and I'm so happy. I love you. I love you. Yeah. That is that is something. It's a three day. How powerful I find it very moving to listen to that exchange, sister dying, understanding, chitterlings, pain and also gitanos open hearted acceptance of teaching from a culture that's far removed from its own.

And how wonderful to hear that audible benefit of what Sister Dan guided him to do. That is really something you heard him say. So please join me in wishing Charlie a strong recovery and continued healing from the experience that he has had.

We're coming to the end of world of Wisdom now.

But before we finish, I want to play you a short piece of Eckhart Tolle advice on weathering the simple inconveniences of covid restrictions, your manufacturing unhappiness through complaining it does not help you overcome the situation at all.

It usually blocks you from finding a true solution to the situation and it makes you unhappy. So even that little thing, no matter how the corporate situation affects you in whatever way your life has become limited except the moment as it is and relinquish complaining mentally, you know, that changes the way in which you experience life through this lack of complaining opens you up already to the deeper dimension. The complaining amplifies the density of the condition self, which is the ego.

If you let go of complaining, the eagle, the false self subsides and then you may find inner peace suddenly arises. Situation hasn't changed, but you stop making yourself into a victim. You stop feeling sorry for yourself because all that's associated with complaining. So that's a very powerful practice that I would recommend. Just try it out. If you don't like it, go back the next day and start complaining again. It's fine.

What about that? Try and stop mentally complaining for a whole day.

I am going to try and give it a go and you can hear the rest after consultation.

And also more from Eckhart Tolle, a doctor, Shefali Sabari, Sister Dannii. I'm all in a second edition. It's going out this weekend too, but you can find it right now.

If you look for a world of wisdom on the BBC World Service Festival website, they'll be offering inspiration to more people looking for help from Bangkok to Beijing.

Do join us. Thank you to all of you who took part in this first edition.

The producer of World of Wisdom is Charlie Taylor. Our assistant producer is Ruth Edwards. I'm Nula McGovern. This is the BBC World Service. Goodbye. Thank you for listening.

There will be more from the documentary podcast soon. If you haven't already, please do subscribe. And don't forget, do try our other BBC World Service podcasts to.

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