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gwunspoken
We know that now more than ever, there is a growing disconnection between parents and their teens, corporates and their employees, and human interactions in general.
This can cause stress, frustration and many arguments within families and the work environment.
gwunspoken looks at the challenges people of all ages have in their relationships with one another and provides experience and advice, allowing all parties to have a voice.... and feel heard.
Join us to hear corporates, parents, educators, teens and the latest advice of how we can in fact live the life we love, in making authentic interactions, because we know... authentic connection is everything.
gwunspoken
The Power of Now
The moment you're in is the one that matters most. Not yesterday's regrets or tomorrow's worries—but right now. This powerful truth forms the cornerstone of our mindfulness series finale, where we explore how being present transforms everything from our brain chemistry to our closest relationships.
Most of us weren't raised to value presence. We were taught survival, productivity, and achievement instead. Yet our biology desperately craves stillness. When we pause, our brains function better—processing information more effectively, reducing stress hormones, and unlocking creativity. That's why presence isn't just a nice idea; it's neural protection.
A father in our story learned this lesson through an unexpected moment. Despite years of working hard to create perfect experiences for his daughter, what she remembered most was the ordinary day he simply knelt beside her when she spilled milk, wiped her tears, and said, "It's okay, accidents happen." Mindfulness lives in these quiet moments that heal us and make us feel safe. You don't need special conditions for mindfulness—just awareness of your breath, the feeling of your feet, or the light through a window.
Before concluding, we offer three practical action steps: choose a daily task to do phone-free, ask someone you trust to gently point out when you're not present, and establish a simple breathing ritual tied to a specific activity. Remember, mindfulness isn't about perfection but practice—being present more often than not, and beginning again whenever you forget.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Are you ready to come home to yourself, one breath at a time?
www.in8code.com
Welcome to another edition of GW Unspoken, where we discuss stuff we don't typically talk about, but probably should. I'm Gary and I want to thank you for joining us all this time for our mindfulness series, and you've made it this far. I want to say thank you, thank you very much, and this is our final episode in the series. I want to thank you not just for listening, but for choosing yourself, even if only for 10 minutes a week. That's enough. That, and today I want to leave you with one simple truth the moment you're in is the one that matters most. Man, our teens need to hear that message, don't they? It's not the one where you were trying to fix yesterday, it's not the one you're worried about tomorrow. It's this one. Right now, you're breathing, you're holding the shoulders. You forgot to relax.
Speaker 1:Now let me ask you something when was the last time you were really here, like really here, not scrolling, not rushing, not thinking about how to be better, faster, more useful, more lovable, but simply just being? You know, presence is so hard, because we weren't raised in a world that teaches presence. We were raised in a world that teaches survival, that values productivity over peace, achievement over alignment. And yet your nervous system, your whole biology is crying out for stillness. Did you know your brain actually functions better when you pause. Have you ever been away at a holiday and you've just been? And suddenly all this stuff comes to you, all this artistic stuff, all this stuff in your brain that goes wow. You can start articulating things better, start feeling more free. When you're fully present, you can process information more effectively, and that reduces cortisol levels. And that's when yoga, creativity actually increases. So present isn't a luxury, it's neural protection, it's survival. It's but the healthy kind of survival.
Speaker 1:I want to tell a story now. It's about a man I met. He was a father. I won't name names, but he told me he spent years waiting for the right moment to be the dad his kid needed Hard worker, Spend his time on the road. But it wasn't the birthday party or the holiday that changed the relationship. It was the moment his daughter spilled her milk in the kitchen. Instead of yelling, he knelt down, wiped her tears and just said it's okay, accidents actually happen that moment. That was the one moment she actually remembered, not the ones where he worked so hard and had to plan for. And so mindfulness lives there, in the tiny quiet moments that no one claps for, but they heal us individually, they change the script and they make us feel safe.
Speaker 1:And look, if you're feeling anxious or disconnected or overwhelmed, I want to remind you you don't need a yoga mat for mindfulness. You don't need perfect conditions, you don't need silence. You just need, right now, the sound of your breath, the feeling of your feet, maybe even looking at the light through the window, looking at a great sunset, maybe looking at a great sunrise. If you're a new riser, that is where your power lives, not in doing, but just in being. You know, let's just try something together before we close this season. If you're walking, just slow down a little bit Right now. If you're listening to this and you're driving, just soften your grip around the steering wheel. And if you're still, even better Now take a deep breath in pause and breathe out. Have a longer pause. Notice when your body is holding tension your jaw, your neck, your chest, and just once you realise it, try and let it go. You're not behind, you're not broken, you're not too late for this. You are here and that is enough.
Speaker 1:And before we wrap up this series, I want to say something personal. You're not the only one, trying to hold it all together. You're not the only one learning how to live softer, not harder, and you're never alone. I want to thank you for seeing me across these eight episodes. Mindfulness isn't a box to tick. It's a way to come home to yourself. One breath, one breath at a time.
Speaker 1:I want to give you some three action steps before we leave, just to see if your journal prompts are working, but also to be more specific around your mindfulness practice for this week. Number one phone-free moment. Choose one daily task, like making coffee or walking, to do without your phone. Write it down, commit to that action. Number two be a presence partner. Ask someone you trust to call you out just gently, when you're not really present, maybe when you're not giving eye contact, when you're listening, or they can actually see that you're actually fading away from conversations. All right, ask them to call it out.
Speaker 1:And number three a breathing cup. Pick one activity. For example, maybe before you go to bed you can take two or three deep breaths and just make that a habit and see how you feel when oxygen hits the brain and your big dental roll relaxes. I wonder if it's going to actually help you with some more rest and quality of rest. You don't need to be perfect, you just need to be present more often than you're not and when you forget, start again, because that's the practice. Thank you for walking with me through the mindfulness season. Our next season we're going to go deep dive into some real social, emotional regulation and wellbeing and the topics that are going to be influential, hopefully, to a variety of people. Thank you for joining us for GDO Unspoken.