When the News Brings You Down, with Kessonga

(air whooshing) (button clicking) (slow music) Headspace Studios. All right, now I have to admit that lately I've been feeling a bit lost or a bit disconnected. When you feel that way, what do you do? I dip into my toolkit that I always kind of have it handy. And it's filled with all kinds of practices or experiences that I can just turn to, depending on how I'm feeling at the time. So, if it's a beautiful day outside, I might go for a walk. If I'm feeling a bit stagnant, I may do some exercising. Have you ever wished you had a wise meditation teacher on speed dial? Someone you can call after a long day. Someone you could lean on for their advice. Someone to listen and help you to see things differently. Welcome to "Dear Headspace." (upbeat music) Hi everyone, this is "Dear Headspace," a podcast where each week I sit down with a Headspace meditation teacher, and we answer your questions. Now, you are probably wondering who I am. Well, I am Robin Hopkins. I am an actor, a writer, a podcaster, and I just so happen to be one of the producers. And I have to say one of, 'cause we have an amazing team, but I'm one of the producers here on the show. I am also a mom of two, and I am a lady who is doing her best to meditate more and maybe yell at my kids a little bit less. (laughs) Nice, nice Robin. Well, I'm Kessonga. My name is Kessonga. I'm one of the mindfulness meditation teachers here at Headspace, and I'm also a former licensed acupuncturist. Ooh. A former psychotherapist and a former bartender. Wait, what? I feel like I can get all the good things at once from you. I can get a cocktail and psychological help. I mean, that's perfect. I've worn many hats, Robin. I've worn many hats in my day. I love this. And now before we get into questions, I wanna ask you. Sure. Are you nervous? Like, does sitting and doing a podcast, does that feel like a different format for you compared to, you know, being a meditation teacher? Well, I mean, naturally it's a different format, all right? 'Cause this is a podcast. But what I'm excited about is the questions. Because keep in mind, as a meditation teacher, if I teach a class, a huge part of any class, any mindfulness class meditation class is the discussion, is the dialogue that we get into. So yeah, the questions are kind of like the essence of it all. No, this is par for the course, I'm thrilled. Well, and our listeners don't know that I don't share the questions with you. Right, exactly. You just get like a general topic. So you're coming in completely blind to what the questions are. But that's how it is in real life, all right? Yeah, exactly. Everyone has questions that they just throw at you. Like when you...