Practicing Patience with Your Family, with Dora

(gentle music) Headspace Studios. Hi folks. Robin here, and I am just letting you know that we are on a little Headspace vacation at the moment. So, the production team and our fabulous teachers can get some downtime to refresh, renew, and come back ready. Don't worry, we are not leaving you. Instead, we are sharing a few of our favorite episodes and hey, this little break is a lovely opportunity to catch up on any episodes that you might have missed the season. Everybody wins, and we will be back on Tuesday, September 12th, kicking things off with a back to school mindful parenting episode. Woo! 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) Well, hi everyone, and thank you for joining us here at "Dear Headspace," a podcast where each week I sit down with a Headspace meditation teacher and we answer your questions about anything and everything. I'm Robin Hopkins. I'm one of the lucky folks who produces "Dear Headspace," and I'm also juggling being an actor, a writer, a podcaster, and a mom of two. And both my kids are in middle school. There is so much drama, Dora. (laughter) I'm sorry to hear that. But as Robin shared, I am Dora Kamau. I'm one of the mindfulness and meditation teachers here at Headspace. And beyond all the credentials and everything that makes me who I am, I am also just a human being and a daughter, sister, friend, lover, and just have used mindfulness and meditation to allow me to navigate this human challenging experience at times. That is delightful. All right. Today we have questions about struggling to learn a new skill, not wanting to be mean to family. That is not an easy one. And what to do when people think you're abrasive. I mean, I feel like these questions were picked specifically for me, so I'm excited. (laughter) I find that very hard to believe. But- Yeah. I am so happy that you are here with me today. Like I already feel like we're having this vibey, amazing experience. Yeah. So, are you ready to take some listener questions? Yes. Okay, here we go. Dear Headspace, apparently I'm a mean person and say things that hurt people's feelings. I think of myself as a compassionate person who's very good at listening, but recently people have brought it to my attention that I can be a bit too blunt in my interactions. Now, it's hard to take this in because it's not how I perceive myself. What do I do? Wow. Wow. I mean, you can really hear that listener is struggling. Yeah, it sounds like there's frustration and I can definitely relate to that of being misunderstood. And I know people have told me, okay,...